Re: Legal liability in the EC

Re: Legal liability in the EC

[usenet.ins.cwru.edu!agate!spool.mu.edu!caen!nic.umass.edu!dime!sandy]

In article <1993Jan7.075406.6948@sei.cmu.edu> firth@sei.cmu.edu (Robert Firth) 
writes:
   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.

I'm not a lawyer, I'm a software engineer, so this opens a great many
questions in my mind...

What exactly are the implications of these required warranties... The
ability to provide software "as-is" has been the foundation of the
large and growing collection of freeware.  If I am open to legal
action because I was willing to offer a system to the community that I
built and found useful for free (as the UCI Arcadians have done with
Aflex and Ayacc).  I suspect the response will not be to make efforts
to protect myself by verification of the software but instead to not
make it available.

Before this gets blown all out of proportion, there are some additonal
legal questions that should be answered... Is there law that limits
the extent of damages? (Here in Massachusetts, if you sue a vendor you
are limited to triple damages).  If not, is it permissible to add
language to the licence to limit the damages to some multiple of the
purchase price (none)? Etc...
        /s
--
Alexander Erskine Wise /\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\ Software Development Laboratory
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\ WISE@CS.UMASS.EDU /\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
\/\/\ This situation calls for large amounts of unadulterated CHOCOLATE! /\/\/\