CompuServe Messages

Michael – > I wonder if someone ever bothered to figure out what the legal position > is in cases like this. Unfortunately (for the consumer), someone has – from the publisher's (Gold Disk's, in this case) perspective, anyway. The fine print of a Gold Disk licensing agreement says: "Program Disclaimer: The program is provided 'as-is' without warranty of any kind… Gold Disk Inc. does not warrant [or] guarantee… the use of the program, in terms of correctness, accuracy, reliability, CURRENTNESS [my highlight], or otherwise." I'm sure others are similar, but I don't know if it's ever been challenged. I seem to recall (generally) hearing of consumers winning against consumer goods manufacturers in terms of products not working as advertised – could that mentality be applied to software? Let's consider: Joe Smith buys Supercalifragilistic Software's "Do Task" program. He posesses, and uses, the 'recommended system' as stated in the instruction manual. The program runs fine, but when he tries to exit, it crashes his system, which results in the loss of some important data. Several problems here – 1: Joe has to prove it was the Do Task software that _caused_ the problem, not just brought it to the surface. 2: He has to prove data was lost, and the value of that data. (I'm sure there's more, but I'm not a lawyer) So let's say he takes SuperSoft to court. Now there's the ethical perspective that Joe is now requiring SuperSoft to spend money on a court case that could otherwise be spent improving the product! While I'm probably grossly oversimplifying, I think you get the idea. BTW, Gold Disk's license agreement ends with the line "This license agreement shall be goverened by the laws of the province of Ontario, Canada." Go figure. There would be the concern, I'm sure, that – Rob.. on Amiga via AutoPilot <71212.712@compuserve.com>