Re: Warranty disclaimers with SHOUTY CAPITALS

Ben Finney <bignose+hates-spambenfinney.id.au>
writes:

> For what it's worth, the GPLv3 drafters researched the
commonly-held
> belief that SHOUTY CAPITALS are required for warranty
disclaimers,
> and concluded there was no such requirement:
> 
>     The warranty exclusions that were in GPL2 have not
been changed
>     saving one way: I took them out of all uppercase.
> 
>     [...] because no lawyer on Earth knows [why] they
aren't in mixed
>     case and everybody seems to think that everybody
else knows and
>     that he's the only one that doesn't know and he was
absent that
>     day in law school.
> 
>     <URL:http://www.ifso.ie/documents/gplv3-laun
ch-2006-01-16.html#em-warranty>

Sadly, checking the released version of GPLv3, I see that
the sections
"15. Disclaimer of Warranty." and "16.
Limitation of Liability." both
contain all text in SHOUTY CAPITALS.

That's disappointing :-( I wasn't aware they'd been reverted
from
readable text. It must have happened shortly before the
release.

> > so the board may want to check their local legal
position before
> > finalising the non-shouty version.
> 
> If the board reveals something more substantive on the
reason for
> writing disclaimers in SHOUTY CAPITALS than
"because that's what
> everyone says you have to do", I'm sure many
people would be
> interested.

This still stands. I'm still entirely unaware of what the
legal reason
is.

-- 
        "It's easy to play any musical instrument: all
you have to do |
  `       is touch the right key at the right time and the
instrument |
_o__)                     will play itself."  -- Johann
Sebastian Bach |
Ben Finney


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