From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.5-pre1 (2020-06-20) on ip-172-31-74-118.ec2.internal X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-0.0 required=3.0 tests=BAYES_20 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.5-pre1 Date: 7 Jan 93 15:07:52 GMT From: usenet.ins.cwru.edu!agate!spool.mu.edu!caen!nic.umass.edu!dime!sandy@gate ch.edu (Sandy Wise) Subject: Re: Legal liability in the EC Message-ID: List-Id: 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! /\/\/\