On 18/02/2023 20:03, Brian Behlendorf wrote:
That's not my premise. My premise is that if you can not hold me free from liability or warranty, I have the right to not allow you access to the other rights granted in my software license.
This feels something like a field of endeavour restriction, which are not allowed. (GPLV2 does allow whole countries to be excluded (clause 8), but only on intellectual property grounds, and the dispensation no longer exists in GPLV3.)
Limits on disclaimer of warranty are put into statute law precisely to stop contracts from opting out, particular where there is an imbalance of power (for the latter reason, the tend to be enforced on consumer contracts, but not business ones - some businesses used to make you warrant you were a business before they would supply you, but I think that practice has died out in the UK, possibly because it was considered a loophole, or case law went against it).
Google says that, at least the state of Maine, in the USA, has laws granting consumers warranties that you cannot contract out. That may affect other parts the USA, and I'd be surprised if it didn't include the whole of Europe. I'd suggest a restriction to users who didn't have such rights would basically have to include the whole private use field of endeavour.
I think the normal reason for mentioning statutory warranties in contracts is to avoid misleading consumers, who may not realise that such statutory rights exist.
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