warranty (was: Re: press release critique)

[Xavier Drudis Ferran]

El Thu, May 03, 2001 at 10:07:08AM +0100, João Miguel Neves deia:
> I think you're right on this. I've been told that here in Portugal only
> the only way to avoid having to provide warranty protection is to put
> the software in public domain (note: I never confirmed this). If this is
> like this in most other european countries, I think we just found the
> first lobbying task for FSFE: making the GPL legal in europe.
> 
There is a legal analysis of the GPL in the Spanish law 
by María de la Hoz del Olmo Navío 
La GPL dentro del ordenamiento jurídico español
http://lucas.hispalinux.es/Presentaciones/200002hispalinux/conf-03/03-html/
It was presented in the hispalinux conference but I read it 
in the DLinux magazine http://www.portaldelinux.com
(a printed 100% freely redistributable content magazine, ). 

I haven't understood it much. it seems to say that there is some 
compulsory warranty and therefore you have to pay for damages caused 
by software that you make, sell or redistribute, even for free, 
whenever they are 
1 - done on purpose,
2 - breaking the law,
OR
3 - by your negligence (but aren't all bugs by negligence?). 

She says the plaintiff would have it difficult to prove this and 
technical service may not be required to be included in the warranty,
nor should you fix what the user has broken by misuse, 
but I really don't understand this part.

But the conclusion says that the GPL is usable in Spain.


-- 
Xavier Drudis Ferran
xdrudis at tinet.org