RE: Documentation Legal Issues???

["Combs, Richard" <richard -dot- combs -at- Polycom -dot- com>]

Technical Writer wrote:
 
> The issue is not the software or product itself, but rather the
> documentation for that product. The way it was stated to me(by a
technical
> writer for a software company), was that every manual, and presumably
every
> piece of documentation generated, was a "legally binding contract,"
and as
> such, had zero tolerance for errors of any type.

Did this writer also warn you about the Postal Service's plan to collect
postage for emails? This is twaddle. 

Just for starters, there is no such thing as a "legally binding
contract" that all parties to the contract didn't willingly agree to
with a full understanding of what they were agreeing to. 

Then take a deep breath, calm your mind, and ask yourself if it's really
believable that the law would single out documentation, of all things,
to be held to the absurd standard of "absolutely perfect" with "zero
tolerance for errors of any type." What else, besides surgery and
childbirth (thanks, Sen. Edwards), does the law hold to that standard?

And if some jurisdiction were stupid enough to enact such a law (I'm
thinking that the bureaucrats in Brussels are capable of astonishingly
stupid things), what would be the unintended consequence? Documentation
would get very slim very quickly. The easiest way to minimize the
possibility of documentation error is to reduce the volume of
documentation. 

"PerfectWord lets you produce letters, memos, and other documents. Use
the keyboard to enter text. Use the menus, mouse, and keyboard to
explore the many features of PerfectWord. Good luck."

Richard


Richard G. Combs
Senior Technical Writer
Polycom, Inc.
richardDOTcombs AT polycomDOTcom
303-223-5111
------
rgcombs AT gmailDOTcom
303-777-0436
------





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