Re: software suits, was Re: Long names are doom ?

["Dale King" <KingD@TCE.com>]

"Marin David Condic" <marin.condic.auntie.spam@pacemicro.com> wrote in
message news:9g33oo$rp$1@nh.pace.co.uk...
<completely unrelated example snipped>
>
> I think that a good trial lawyer would probably be able to find case law
and
> arguments that would nullify the usual disclaimers made for software in
> extreme cases of software failure. Not being a lawyer nor do I play one in
> newsgroups, I could not say for sure, but it seems that a lot of those
> standard disclaimers written in small type and easily blipped over when
> installing software seem to be a bit unilaterally imposed and with a bit
of
> a disparity of power. How am I supposed to make an informed judgement
about
> accepting your software "as is" until I install it and test-drive it? I
> can't adequately inspect the goods without installing it on my machine.
And
> by then I've walked past the screen saying 'I Accept' without being able
to
> find out that your software turns disk drives into a smouldering heap of
> slag.

I certainly do not put anything past a trial lawyer to attempt. But the odds
are stacked against them. And I have never seen a license agreement that you
could skip by without actually making a conscious effort to say that you
accept the agreement. I even had one recently that would not let me just hit
accept if I didn't at least scroll down a little through the text of the
agreement. It is very difficult to claim ignorance when you have to hit a
button that  says "I accept the terms of this agreement". If you don't
bother to read what you are agreeing to, that pretty much qualifies as your
problem.

And they are not unilaterally imposed. You have all the power. Most
agreements say if you do not agree to these terms, then return the software.
They can't make you agree, install, and use it.

> I think the only reason more software companies have not been handed their
> asses in court is that for the most part end-users have just come to
accept
> as gospel that most software is buggy crap and there isn't anything they
can
> do about it.

And the problem is that they have accepted an agreement with the software
company that says this software may be a buggy piece of crap, so it is
rather difficult to sue a company for living up to its agreement.

--
 Dale King