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Re: logo license with debian - no warranty missing?



Alexander Reichle-Schmehl <alexander@schmehl.info> writes:

> I still don't understand. Is it prudent to have such a clause, because
> someone else could embed a bad script, to be sure we are safe?

That's what I'm saying. As I see it, the potential for legal confusion
over who is implicitly warranting the embedded program is a greater risk
than simply using a warranty disclaimer in the license terms.

> (How could that happen, if someone else causes the problem and
> distributes that?)

I assume “how could that happen” there refers to the legal confusion. I
don't pretend to be an expert, but “The Debian project is a major
copyright holder in this work which caused damage to our systems, and
there's no warranty disclaimer” isn't particularly implausible.

Such a situation would predictably (not inevitably) lead to a court
battle over who caused the damage; even if the Debian project knows that
it's blameless, that could be expensive to prove in a court case.

If a warranty disclaimer can nip that in the bud, by avoiding the need
to discuss who did what, it seems like a simple and low-cost way to
reduce the risk. I'm not insisting, but it seems that there is little
downside to doing so, and a plausible risk is averted; which is why I
say it would be prudent to do so.

-- 
 \       Eccles: “I just saw the Earth through the clouds!”  Lew: “Did |
  `\      it look round?”  Eccles: “Yes, but I don't think it saw me.” |
_o__)                            —The Goon Show, _Wings Over Dagenham_ |
Ben Finney


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