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From: mball@noscvax.UUCP (Michael S. Ball)
Newsgroups: net.micro
Subject: Re: Your software rights are in danger
Message-ID: <151@noscvax.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 21-Dec-85 01:19:52 EST
Article-I.D.: noscvax.151
Posted: Sat Dec 21 01:19:52 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 22-Dec-85 05:36:35 EST
References: <826@brl-tgr.ARPA>
Reply-To: mball@cod.UUCP (Michael S. Ball)
Organization: Naval Ocean Systems Center, San Diego
Lines: 53

In article <826@brl-tgr.ARPA> sienkiew@louie.udel.edu writes:

>I have NEVER NEVER NEVER seen a license agreement that guarentees some
>measure of reliability for the software.  If it doesn't work, you have NO
>RECOURSE AT ALL.
>
  :
>A point to ponder:  Why doesn't the law require that the software must live up
>to all the claims made by it's publisher???

There are companies who try to be fair, but the lawyers frequently limit
what they can say.  Consider the following, from Oregon Software's License
agreement:


    "Oregon Software warrents that the Software conforms to the product
    description applicable at the time of the order.  Oregon Software
    will refund the License fee if, within 30 days of first receipt of
    the Software Licensee returns the Software accompanied by evidence
    that it does not conform to the product description.  Oregon Software
    will provide written response to documented reports of Software
    errors and will make any announced Software ipdates available to
    Licensee for one year from receipt of the original Software;
    however, Oregon Software does not guarantee that all Software
    errors will be corrected or that updates will be compatible with
    previous versions.  The charge per update shall be the costs of
    media, handling and shipping plus twenty-five (25) U.S. dollars.
    Licensee's Softwere Support Contact Person will present any
    warranty claims and receive any notices or updates.

    "Except for the express warranties stated above, Oregon Software
    disclaims all warranties on the Software furnished hereunder,
    including all implied warranties of merchantability ond fitness.
    The stated express warranties are in lieu of all obligations or
    liability on the part of Oregon Software for damages, including
    but not limited to special, indirect, or consequential damages
    arising out of or in connection with the use or performance of
    the Software."

Of course in this case the software costs several thousand dollars,
comes with support, and isn't shipped until after the license agreement
is signed.  It gets a bit harder with $50 items.

What you really want to say is "we do the best we can, but all
software has bugs and we can't claim to be any different."

It's an interesting and very hard problem, given our current
legal climate.

Mike Ball
TauMetric Corporation
1094 Cudahy Pl. Ste 302
San Diego, CA 92110