Ron Fotino said:
"I don't know about the "legal" position. However, it seems to
me if you are buying the PC for personal use, there is no risk
of losing your PC."
Fully agree. If the manufacturer recalls the product, there
is no obligation on the part of the buyer to respond to such a
recall. I would be very surprised if the "recall" by a small
jobber in London, would result in a return of more that 5% of
the products he assembled.
(I would be very surprised if a small jobber in London would
not just disappear and open up under a new name in another
section of the city before being put into a position where
he/she would have to do a recall).
"If you are buying alot of them for corporate use or resale,
might I suggest you "leverage" the manufacturer to do the
proper testing and make the declaration. You could test them
yourself. This is a problem though because the manufacturer
could make changes without letting you know."
If the assembler is working on a scale where he/she fills
corporate orders or delivers for resale, we are no longer
talking about a real "SMALL" operation in the first place.
In addition, most corporations that buy PCs in bulk do have
policies in place (for self protection purposes) that would
not allow them to buy stuff that is not properly certified
and marked.
Ergo, while this is sound advise, I doubt that in real life
this advise is needed. It is part of the normal business
environment.
"It is very realistic to believe that a small PC "manufacturer"
would go into liquidation before facing prosecution."
I must repeat that in a world where the PC is subject to so
many innovations, at so rapid a pace, that much of the
assembling, upgrading and integrating will be done by "other
than" the original equipment manufacturers, the notion of
testing/certifying products as a whole is becoming
increasingly anachronistic.
I suspect that trying to test/certify/license the assemblers
will prove equally anachronic. There are just too many hungry
people out there that need to make a living.
Collectively, we will have to put on our thinking caps and try
and find "do-able" solutions.
Regards,
Vic Boersma
