[sdiy] legalities?

[Harry Bissell Jr]

Hi Batz

I'm not a lawyer, though I play one on TV...

The basic question is really not the question of the
ignorance of the person, but whether you told them
anything WRONG.

something contrary to accepted practice, against
international standards etc.

Another issue is whether you know what you are doing.
If your information is correct, you probably cannot be
held responsible for their use, or inability to use
the information you requested.

I think you are right, you might still pull a
frivolous
lawsuit. But that could happen because will eating an
ice cream cone, crossing a street, you frightened a
cat
which ran in front of a car, the driver veered into a
flock of schoolchildren (or nuns, or whatever) and is
blaming YOU.   Its bullshit and I don't think you need
to live in fear of that.

my $.02 or equivalent local currency

H^) harry


--- Batz Goodfortune <batzman-nr at all-electric.com>
wrote:

> Y-ellow Fellow Mutants.
>          Here's a question for those who are
> publishing and/or fabricating.
> 
> I'm recently concerned about a legal issue with
> regards to publishing my 
> switch-mode quasi-project. I had read recently that
> just because you place 
> a disclaimer on something, doesn't mean you can't be
> held liable. From what 
> I can gather, it works like this.
> 
> Unless the disclaimer is written in law, it's not
> actually legally binding. 
> Therefore if someone killed their gold fish with one
> of your projects and 
> they just happened to be sufficiently angry about
> it, they COULD cause you 
> grief. The challenge would probably not go the
> distance but it would still 
> cost you money to defend. You'd have to contend
> that...
> 
> "The guy is an idiot for trying to use his gold fish
> as a load resistor in 
> the first place."
> 
> Etc etc.
> 
> If the project was simple, like wiring a flashing
> LED on a stick, then 
> sands for a few burnt out taste buds from licking
> the battery, there's 
> little chance the "Idiot" could do him self much
> damage. However, this 
> switch mode project is at the other end of the
> scale. Big bitey stuff. It's 
> not even a real project in the sense that it deals
> with methods for 
> determining and modifying existing computer power
> supplies. And since there 
> are hundreds outside of the scope of the article and
> of the author, it 
> doesn't actually deal with anything specific. All
> the more dangerous to an 
> imbecile who might think it's trivial. In spite of
> any warnings. Of which 
> I've placed many.
> 
> The article is part written but I don't know if to
> finish it and get it out 
> there. I can't afford a lawyer to check out if I'm
> doing anything wrong and 
> whilst I'm in Australia, it's published in America,
> technically under 
> American  law.
> 
> I'm sure that someone here must have grazed upon
> this problem before so I'm 
> wondering if anyone knows what the acceptable risk
> is or has any opinions 
> on this side of things.
> 
> I don't HAVE to publish it but I'd like to. In that
> it's taken me quite 
> some research to gather all this information
> together. No-one else has 
> tackled this. Not at this level anyway. And that may
> well be for good 
> reason. However if someone else were thinking along
> these lines, this may 
> be useful to them.
> 
> Thanks in advance.
> 
> Be absolutely Icebox.
> 
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