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I, like many others here, have been moonlighting printing parts for people. I know this is a topic for lawyers but I'm wondering what would be the best way to CYA(cover your a**) in the event of a disgruntled customer? I read this: http://www.3ders.org/articles/20131215- ... y-law.html
Thoughts?

Batteau62 wrote:I, like many others here, have been moonlighting printing parts for people. I know this is a topic for lawyers but I'm wondering what would be the best way to CYA(cover your a**) in the event of a disgruntled customer? I read this: http://www.3ders.org/articles/20131215- ... y-law.html
Thoughts?

The chances of lawsuit are small but do exist. But some would sue if you gave them a dollar and they got a paper cut. I'm not a lawyer either but I think a standard disclaimer that you
are not liable for injuries resulting from use of the parts, signed by the client would be enough to cover your butt in the very small chance of a suit.

Something like this:
"This ___________ (type of product) is provided as is without any guarantees or warranty. In connection with the product, the author, ___________ (your name or company name) makes no warranties of any kind, either express or implied, including but not limited to warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, of title, or of noninfringement of third party rights. Use of the product by a user is at the user’s risk."

Batteau62 wrote:Something like this:
"This ___________ (type of product) is provided as is without any guarantees or warranty. In connection with the product, the author, ___________ (your name or company name) makes no warranties of any kind, either express or implied, including but not limited to warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, of title, or of noninfringement of third party rights. Use of the product by a user is at the user’s risk."

Looks to be okay except the ending could be a little stronger like the user agrees that the "author" shall not be held responsible in the case of harm or injury incurred by the user.
Only make it sound more like a lawyer wrote it. I'm not good at legalize English.

I'm not a lawyer either, but here's my comment.

If someone puts your 3d printed part in a device that causes damage or injury, and is somehow linked to causing "an accident", people who want to sue will name you, the printer manufacturer, the filament mfg, Mr. Magoo and everyone else under the sun that they can find, in the lawsuit.

In my experience, talking with a few lawyer friends of mine, these disclaimers are useful mostly just to warn people away from doing silly things, and they are certainly not a safety blanket from litigation, no matter how professionally worded or lengthy. Determined clients and their lawyers will sue regardless of the disclaimer.

I *do* wonder whether your liability increased/decreases based on whether you sold the part vs. just gave it to them... Maybe if one does a decent amount of custom parts, setting up an LLC might make sense???

Greg

p.s.

With 3d printers design to produce food items now coming out, I'm sure the first "I got sick eating their fancy designer sugar cubes" lawsuit is not far behind.

Eaglezsoar wrote:I'm not good at legalize English.

[begin rant]

Cause that isn't English. It is an invented pseudo code, created and applied for the sole purpose of garnishing huge sums of monies for anybody who hasn't become pseudo human.


[\end rant]

From what I understand unless you start an actual commercial business you're liability is different. Again, from what I understand as just a random person, realistically your liability is if your part was to fail and cause harm/damage, the other party would have to prove you were negligent in some way for compensation.

So long as you don't make parts that are obviously not intended for critical applications, you're probably not in too much danger. But, it's not difficult to think of scenarios where you open yourself to a world of hurt. For instance, if I were to make a 3D printed carabiner for my own use and then it failed while I was belaying someone while climbing, I could be directly responsible for that persons death by not using equipment that was tested and certified to the OSHA standard (in the USA; EU has similar regulation).

Unless you have access to high-end metal printing equipment, I doubt it's even possible to make a carabiner that would pass safety testing. However, that doesn't mean you couldn't make one for a less critical application, such as a keyring or storage hooks. But if it even looked like the real item, I'd mold "Not for climbing use" right into it to cover my butt.