Arnoud Engelfriet wrote: > Andrew Donnellan wrote: >> Of course that doesn't mean it's not required, just that the evidence >> given was irrelevant. I've seen most places do it and lawyers >> recommending it and so on, and as it is a legal disclaimer I think it >> would be wise to use emphasised text, at least put asterisks around it >> or something to draw attention. > > Laws like the Uniform Commercial Code do require that disclaimers > of warranty be "by a writing and conspicuous". > http://www.law.cornell.edu/ucc/2/article2.htm#s2-316 > > I suppose you could be equally conspicuous with boldface or > differently colored text.
Hmm. I'd really think conspicuous is more about *placement* than emphasis. A warranty disclaimer in ALL CAPS subtly located on the bottom of the package is inconspicuous; one in any form of text located front and center on the package is conspicuous. Sigh. Thinking about this, this means putting your warranty disclaimer in the license, which only a small percentage of recipients even read, is probably inconspicuous by nature. > The problem is, as far as the lawyers > are concerned, all caps seems to work just fine. Why use > something different? At best, the court will rule it's just > as good as all caps. At worst, they'll say you deviated from > common industry practice, which confuses consumers, and therefore > your disclaimer was *not* conspicuous. Well, when someone wins a court case invalidating a disclaimer because all caps are unreadable.... it'll change then, I guess. :-/ > So it's not just monkey-see, monkey-do, but more like > monkey-worry-about-malpractice. So "common industry practice" is the reason -- that sort of makes sense, even though it's unutterably stupid. It seems like any disclaimer in the *MIT* license would be relatively conspicuous, seeing as how it's more text than the whole rest of the license. In contrast, I'd expect any disclaimer tucked on page nine of a ten-page-long license to be found inconspicuous. And lawyers do *THAT* all the time. :-P > Arnoud > -- Nathanael Nerode <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Bush admitted to violating FISA and said he was proud of it. So why isn't he in prison yet?... -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]