restrictions on warranty disclaimers?

[leviticus!karl@uunet.uu.net (Karl A. Nyberg)]

I have specifically NOT limited the distribution, so we can hopefully get
somebody on the other side of the pond involved.

Attached is that message, dated 7 January.

-- Karl --

In article <1993Aug12.215128.5930@colorado.edu> dennis@dennis.cs.colorado.edu (
Dennis Heimbigner) writes:
>
>In my recent announcement of the availability of the Q RPC system,
>there was the following paragraph:
>
>	WARNING:
>	We are given to understand that our warranty disclaimers
>	are not valid in the EC, even though we are not charging
>	for this software.  Therefore, if you are a citizen of
>	the EC, we must request that you do not attempt to obtain
>	this software unless you have specific legal opinions stating
>	that our disclaimers are acceptable.
>
>We were prompted to include this because of a dialog
>that occurred on comp.lang.ada some months ago.
>The announcment then of the adamakegen program included
>its warranty disclaimer.  Someone posted a message
>that said that such disclaimers were void in the European Community (EC).
>There was some additional discussion about applying this law
>to free software.  From the discussion, it appeared to me that it
>applied to all software, free or not.
>
>My question is: did I misinterpret that discussion? In the interim
>have there been messages that have clarified the issue?

In article <1993Jan7.075406.6948@sei.cmu.edu> firth@sei.cmu.edu writes:
>In article <9301061627.aa17219@Paris.ics.uci.edu> irus-software-request@ics.uc
i.edu writes:
>
>> THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED ``AS IS'' AND WITHOUT ANY EXPRESS OR
>> IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, THE IMPLIED
>> WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
>
>Since this message seems to have been posted with no geographical
>restriction, perhaps a warning is in order.
>
>As of 1993 January 1, all products distribuited within the European
>Community carry an implied warranty of merchantability, including
>all computer related products, and this warranty cannot be disclaimed.
>
>In most countries of the EC, in fact, it is illegal to attempt to
>disclaim this implied warranty; in the United Kingdom (at least),
>it is a *criminal offence* to do so.
>
>About time too, if you want my opinion.

-- 
Karl Nyberg			-- karl@grebyn.com
Grebyn Corporation		-- 1-703-281-2194
P. O. Box 497			-- Yes, I speak for the company.
Vienna, VA 22183-0497		-- I own it.