Changeset - 77579a83f43d
[Not reviewed]
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Bradley Kuhn (bkuhn) - 10 years ago 2014-03-20 12:17:19
bkuhn@ebb.org
Integrate case law reference on conspicuousness into this existing text.

Include my lawyer-bashing-ish little anecdote too, just for fun.
1 file changed with 16 insertions and 8 deletions:
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gpl-lgpl.tex
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@@ -2149,14 +2149,22 @@ There is apparently general acceptance that \textsc{all caps} is the
 
preferred way to make something conspicuous, and that has over decades worked
 
its way into the voodoo tradition of warranty disclaimer writing.
 

	
 
% FIXME: Admittedly, goes here ?
 

	
 
There is authority under United States law suggesting that effective warranty
 
disclaimers must be ``conspicuous,'' and that conspicuousness can be
 
established by capitalization and is absent when a disclaimer has the same
 
typeface as the terms surrounding it (see \textit{Stevenson v.~TRW, Inc.},
 
987 F.2d 288, 296 (5th Cir.~1993)).  We have reason to doubt that such
 
authority would apply to copyright licenses like the GPL.
 
That said, there is admittedly some authority under USA law suggesting that
 
effective warranty disclaimers that conspicuousness can be established by
 
capitalization and is absent when a disclaimer has the same typeface as the
 
terms surrounding it (see \textit{Stevenson v.~TRW, Inc.}, 987 F.2d 288, 296
 
(5th Cir.~1993)).  While GPLv3's drafters doubted that such authority would
 
apply to copyright licenses like the GPL, the FSF has nevertheless left
 
warranty and related disclaimers in \textsc{all caps} throughout all versions
 
of GPL\@\footnote{\textsc{One of the authors of this tutorial, Bradley
 
    M.~Kuhn, has often suggested that as compromise, use of a specifically
 
    designed ``small caps'' font, such as the one used herein, is
 
    aesthetically preferable to merely} WRITING IN ALL CAPS IN THE DEFAULT
 
  FONT (LIKE THIS), WHICH SEEMS TO ADD UGLINESS RATHER THAN
 
  CONSPICUOUSNESS\@.  Indeed, Kuhn once got into a reversion war in a
 
  document with a lawyer who disagreed with this, but the lawyer in question
 
  ignored Kuhn's requests to produce any case law that argued THIS IS MORE
 
  CONSPICUOUS \textit{Than this is}.}.
 

	
 
Some have argued the GPL is unenforceable in some jurisdictions because
 
its disclaimer of warranties is impermissibly broad.  However, GPLv2~\S11
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