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There is no law saying your manuals have to be perfect. But just to be
safe, your copyright page should say something like this "The
information in this publication is provided AS-IS."
That will solve the crisis.
Brian Gause
Technical Writer
-----Original Message-----
From: techwr-l-bounces+gause_brian=emc -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
[mailto:techwr-l-bounces+gause_brian=emc -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com] On
Behalf Of Janet Swisher
Sent: Monday, September 29, 2008 11:03 AM
To: Technical Writer
Cc: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Subject: Re: Documentation Legal Issues???
On Mon, Sep 29, 2008 at 8:40 AM, Technical Writer <tekwrytr -at- hotmail -dot- com>
wrote:
>
> Other than implied warranty of fitness, and similar "generic good
will" considerations, is anyone aware of specific legislation that
mandates accuracy in documentation under penalty of law? For example, a
mandate that would require a software product manual or other similar
document to be "absolutely perfect"--meaning, if there was an error (not
threatening to the life, limb, or well-being of the user), is there some
law that would require a company to essentially recall and replace the
entire manual?
>
> Despite having worked in the field as an independent contractor for a
number of years, and taken various business classes at the local
university on legal and regulatory issues, I have never heard of such.
If anyone has, I would really appreciate it.
>
> 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.
>
A company I worked for put in their contracts that the software was
warranted to work "as documented". This did not lead to them requiring
that the documentation be perfect. Rather, it led to omitting things
from the documentation if there was any possibility that the software
might now work that way (e.g., last-minute features), while still
producing plausibly complete docs. I think they also took the view
that a discrepancy between the docs and the software would simply be
considered a software defect, to be remedied under the maintenance
section of the contract. The software in question was potentially
business-critical but not life-critical.
That clause of the contracts was never tested while I was there.
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ComponentOne Doc-To-Help gives you everything you need to author and
publish quality Help, Web, and print content. Perfect for technical
authors, developers, and policy writers. Download a FREE trial. http://www.componentone.com/DocToHelp/
True single source, conditional content, PDF export, modular help.
Help & Manual is the most powerful authoring tool for technical
documentation. Boost your productivity! http://www.helpandmanual.com
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