Mail etiquette (was: What is this mean by this term)

[Ted Mittelstaedt]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jay Chandler" <chandler at chapman.edu>
To: "freebsd-questions" <freebsd-questions at freebsd.org>
Sent: Thursday, January 18, 2007 5:33 PM
Subject: Re: Mail etiquette (was: What is this mean by this term)

> >
> >
>
> Have any of these disclaimers ever proven to be even the slightest bit
> legally enforceable?
>

No they are not.  You cannot enforce something when you do not have
the recipient make an informed commitment to it.

For example, you can hold a gun to someone's head and make them
sign a contract.  The second you walk away they take the contract
to a court and bam, it's invalidated because they signed under duress.

And if you look at recent court decisions, the definition of signing under
duress has been -exceedingly- stretched these days.  Nowadays if
someone can convince a court that the contract holder ddn't completely
inform them of every last little condition, they can invalidate the
contract.

And this is a signed, notarized, witnessed contract we are talking about.
The idea that something like these disclaimers, or for that matter, software
shrink wrap licenses, would hold any legal water is just preposterous.

> I mean, for God's sake, they're at the bottom of the message,
> essentially telling you not to read the message you just read.
>

It would make no difference where they were in the message.  The
people insisting on these disclaimers have absolutely no legal knowledge
whatsoever.

Ted