Re: software liability disclaimers

From: Richard Heathfield (invalid_at_address.co.uk.invalid)
Date: 11/28/03 

Date: Fri, 28 Nov 2003 20:54:18 +0000

Developwebsites wrote:

>>I suggest you ask the question in a newsgroup where discussing your
>>country's law is topical. This newsgroup is, of course, for discussing
>>programming, not law.
>
> I am in the USA,

Then I suggest a USA law group.

> and this question does pertain to programmers and their
> software.

For your convenience and edification, I quote the group's charter, which is
supposed to be posted here on a weekly basis. As you will see when you read
it, it shows that this newsgroup is for discussing *programming*, not
*programmers*. Your question, which has nothing to do with programming and
everything to do with local legislation in your particular country, is
therefore not topical here.

Subject: --- comp.programming charter: read before you post (weekly notice)

comp.programming Programming issues that transcend languages and OSs.

It is a matter of courtesy to read a USENET group for at least a month
before posting anything to it. You should be familiar with this article
and with all the regular announcements in news.announce.newusers. A
newsgroup is like a crowded meeting hall filled with people who want to
talk about similar subjects. Chances are that if you just stick your
head in and shout, you'll be saying something totally inappropriate or
asking a question which someone else asked last week, and everyone will
be angry at you. To avoid this, _read_ before you post.

What you _should_ post here (the charter):

 comp.programming is an unmoderated group for discussions of
 programming issues which are not limited to a specific machine,
 operating system, or language: in particular, algorithms of all
 types. ``Programming issues'' means _practical_ programming
 issues: it is considered very bad form here to discuss issues
 with which you do not have direct programming experience.

What you _should not_ post here:

 Any issue which is limited to a specific machine, operating
 system, or language is completely inappropriate for this group.
 If you are programming under UNIX, use comp.unix.programmer. If
 you are programming a PC, use comp.os.msdos.programmer. If you
 are programming a Mac, use the comp.sys.mac.programmer
 hierarchy. If you are programming an Amiga, use
 comp.sys.amiga.programmer. If you are programming a game and
 think that your question is of interest to other game
 programmers, use rec.games.programmer. If you're absolutely sure
 that your question is on the use of the C language---it wouldn't
 make sense if you were using a different language---try
 comp.lang.c. If your question is a meta-question which has to do
 with features of various programming languages, use
 comp.lang.misc. If your question has to do with theoretical
 results which have to do with computer science rather than
 programming, try comp.theory. Finally, if you're sure that your
 question would make sense under a variety of operating systems,
 running on a variety of machines, and in a wide variety of
 programming languages, then comp.programming is probably right.

 Note added 3/9/92: If you want source code for something, you'll
 get better response in comp.sources.wanted, which was created to
 handle such requests.

Other comp.programming conventions:

 It's often difficult to talk about programming without quoting
 the results of that programming---i.e., code. There is nothing
 wrong with using a particular language to present code samples,
 as long as they _could_ have been expressed in various other
 languages. However, you are less likely to have your question
 understood if you illustrate it with a choice segment of APL
 than if you use pseudo-code, Algol, C, etc.

For future reference, comp.programming passed by a vote of 403-47. It
was created 3/1/92. 

-- 
Richard Heathfield : binary@eton.powernet.co.uk
"Usenet is a strange place." - Dennis M Ritchie, 29 July 1999.
C FAQ: http://www.eskimo.com/~scs/C-faq/top.html
K&R answers, C books, etc: http://users.powernet.co.uk/eton

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