[cgmopen-members] Vendor Product Disclaimer

[Lofton Henderson <lofton@rockynet.com>]

CGMO members,

Your feedback is needed.

Here is a piece of the product web page project -- "Legal Para".

1.) Dieter, please integrate it into the draft web pages layout.  It is my 
feeling that there should be a disclaimer on the first page, and every 
"category page" that contains actual product links.

2.) It is lengthy, I know.  I have been thinking about whether we could 
have one, more terse sentence that disclaims "any representations or 
warranties, express or implied, about the accuracy of any information on 
these pages, or the fitness or suitability on any referenced products to 
their intended purposes or any other purposes.  Read more."  And "read 
more" would link to a lengthier statement, such as the below.

3.) All.  Please read and comment.  Also consider the idea I presented in 
#2 (shorter terser statement that references lengthier explanation, 
disclaimer, recommendation from each occurrence.)  If you have "Legal", you 
might ask their opinion(s).

4.) Should I try to get a reading from OASIS Legal?  I tend to think that 
this is straightforward enough that we can avoid that -- IMO (but IANAL), 
we just need to grab the standard catch phrases for shrink wrap and other 
"product" licenses.  I quote "product" because we aren't really 
distributing anything with product-like IPR associated -- we are only 
hosting information about vendor products, and the hosting is in fact 
mostly just references (links).

Draft follows...

Disclaimer
----------

CGM Open (CGMO) in no way endorses the member products that are referenced 
on these Web pages, nor does it make any representation express or implied 
about the quality of any of these products, or the fitness and suitability 
of any reference product for any particular purposes.  CGMO offers these 
product listing pages as a benefit of membership, on the condition that the 
member supply a self-assessment pro forma associated  with each 
product.  It is a policy of CGMO to strive to foster better quality and 
interoperability of products, and CGMO believes that user access to 
information about quality, completeness, and interoperability is a key 
component of such a policy.  Nevertheless CGMO takes no position on the 
accuracy of any vendor's listed information, nor its relevance or 
applicability to the purposes, needs, or goals of any potential 
users.  CGMO urges potential users of any of these products to study all 
available information thoroughly, and to query product vendors carefully on 
questions of completeness, quality, suitability, and interoperability.


Regards,
-Lofton.