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Date:      Thu, 18 Jan 2007 23:29:23 -0800
From:      "Ted Mittelstaedt" <tedm@toybox.placo.com>
To:        "Jay Chandler" <chandler@chapman.edu>, "freebsd-questions" <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org>
Subject:   Re: Mail etiquette (was: What is this mean by this term)
Message-ID:  <013901c73b9b$8b074e70$3c01a8c0@coolf89ea26645>
References:  <04E232FDCD9FBE43857F7066CAD3C0F126733D@svmailmel.bytecraft.internal> <45B01FEC.1030008@chapman.edu>

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----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jay Chandler" <chandler@chapman.edu>
To: "freebsd-questions" <freebsd-questions@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




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