"John Halton" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > I have a (slightly old) edition of Rennie's "Computer and Internet > Contracts and Law" (a leading English software precedents > looseleaf), and the notes state as follows in a number of contracts: > > "USA: NOTE: In all States in the USA (except Louisiana) all > disclaimers of warranty of merchantability or warranty of fitness > for any particular purpose must be conspicuous and are usually in > boldface or uppercase (capital) print or both."
The law, as described here, is an ass. Writing a long passage in SHOUTY CAPITALS makes it "conspicuous", yes; but, unlike a change of font or boldface, it becomes *less readable*, and so less likely that the consumer will read it, than if it were in the same mixed case as the rest of the text. > According to the commentary, this is a requirement of the Uniform > Commercial Code. (Quick forage on Wikipedia). Here you go: > http://www.law.cornell.edu/ucc/2/article2.htm#s2-316 Thanks for the reference. It's too bad the code in this case has the opposite effect of the ostensible purpose: to help the consumer read the important parts. > So it appears the legal requirement is for the disclaimer to be > "conspicuous". However, it's difficult to see how you can achieve > this in plain text other than by SHOUTY CAPITALS, alas. By surrounding the passage with lines of separator characters above and below, would be one suggestion that I consider superior to SHOUTY CAPITALS. (Good sigmonster, have a cookie) -- \ "It's my belief we developed language because of our deep inner | `\ need to complain." -- Jane Wagner, via Lily Tomlin | _o__) | Ben Finney -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
