From: Kent Crispin <kent@songbird.com>
Date: Thu, 28 Aug 1997 09:07:44 +0800
To: cypherpunks@Algebra.COM
Subject: Re: heart
In-Reply-To: <199708271649.MAA09156@www.video-collage.com>
Message-ID: <19970827174950.35762@bywater.songbird.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



On Wed, Aug 27, 1997 at 12:49:42PM -0400, Sean Roach wrote:
> At 11:55 PM 8/26/97 -0700, Kent Crispin wrote:
[...]
> 
> Pretty soon every revolver will have a warning label.  "Warning, misuse of
> this tool can result in injury and death.  By handling this item you consent
> to bear all legal responsibility reguarding its use."  Never mind that such
> should be implied.

Product liability issues are more prominent when something doesn't 
function as it is supposed to -- say you are trying to defend 
yourself against a thief, and the gun blows up in your face.  This is 
not the same as assuming legal liability for when you shoot someone.

Arguably, even then you should not be able to sue -- the small 
aircraft industry has been decimated by product liability issues.  
And I remember when Chouinard went out of the climbing equipment 
business because of threat of lawsuits.

My understanding is that warning labels -- even signed liability 
releases -- are of limited use in these cases, because, while you can 
sign a binding contract that limits your ability to sue, you cannot 
so bind your survivors. 

-- 
Kent Crispin				"No reason to get excited",
kent@songbird.com			the thief he kindly spoke...
PGP fingerprint:   B1 8B 72 ED 55 21 5E 44  61 F4 58 0F 72 10 65 55
http://songbird.com/kent/pgp_key.html