Reading Software Licence Agreements

I'm a regular visitor and poster on reddit over the course of the time I've been there I had a thought: what if you could only post on an article after a certain amount of time has lapsed. For arguments sake the time could be based on the number of words in an article. According to Wikipedia the average American reads at 250 words per minute. Based on this article currently on the front page of reddit, the timer would be set at approximately 3 minutes (the article has ~800 words in it). Obviously this system isn't perfect, but the general idea is to get someone to actually read an article before posting a comment on it.

I like to think you know where I'm going with this with respect to the title of this post, what if the same was true of software licences. Let's take a look at the length of some software licence agreements and the approximate reading times (rounded to nearest minute):

• OS X Snow Leopard
  • Number of words: 13801
  • Reading Time: 55 minutes
• Windows 7 Home Premium
  • Number of words: 5219
  • Reading Time: 21 minutes
• Flickr
  • Number of words: 5617
  • Reading Time: 22 minutes
• Google Account (with no services)
  • Number of words: 3957
  • Reading Time: 16 minutes
• Reddit - User Agreement
  • Number of words: 4283
  • Reading Time: 17 minutes
• Twitter
  • Number of words: 2986
  • Reading Time: 12 minutes
• YouTube
  • Number of words: 3745
  • Reading Time: 15 minutes
• Yahoo
  • Number of words: 4160
  • Reading Time: 17 minutes
• Wikipedia
  • Number of words: 981
  • Reading Time: 4 minutes
• Facebook
  • Number of words: 3713
  • Reading Time: 15 minutes

Most of these sites also have a privacy policy that I didn't add into the number of words and reading time.

Imagine if when you tried to install software if wouldn't let you click on the 'next' button until the amount of time to read the agreement had elapsed... but then, you already do read the agreements, right? It wouldn't make a difference to you.