In what’s ended up being a very strange April Fool’s joke indeed, it seems that game retailer GameStation changed its terms and conditions to allow it to buy a customer’s “immortal soul,” a fact that appears to have escaped customers’ notice.

Where would you even keep that many souls?

The retailer has claimed somewhere around 7,500 human souls thanks to the change in its contract, which states pretty much exactly what you’d imagine it does, and does and awful lot to underscore the fact that very few of us indeed actually read the terms and conditions of web-based services to which we subscribe. Fully 88% of GameStation’s users simply accepted to sell their souls, while 12% clicked a link offering the ability to opt out of the soul clause.

For those of you worried that you might unwittingly sell your own soul online, the clause itself wasn’t obfuscated with any legalese, simply stating that,

“By placing an order via this Web site on the first day of the fourth month of the year 2010 Anno Domini, you agree to grant us a non transferable option to claim, for now and for ever more, your immortal soul. Should we wish to exercise this option you agree to surrender your immortal soul, and any claim you may have on it, within 5 (five) working days of receiving written notification from gamestation.co.uk or one of its duly authorised minions. We reserve the right to serve such notice in 6 (six) foot high letters of fire, however we can accept no liability for any loss or damage caused by such an act.”

It seems fairly unlikely that GameStation will be taking people’s souls in the near future, but the whole incident does present a fairly interesting argument; the fact is that very few of us do read a license agreement before blindly clicking the “Accept” button at the bottom of the page.