Hey, jwk, Runner: reflect for a moment on what that anecdote about the lawyers telling the businesspeople never to say "Year 2000 Compliant" means. The lawyers weren't encouraging the businesspeople to be misleading; quite the opposite: they were advising them NOT to be overly optimistic, so that the recipients of the response wouldn't be falsely lulled into a sense that their business had eliminated every possible source of Year 2000-related disruption. This is precisely the advice that Dave Hall, who moderates the embedded systems discussion on the SIM Y2K Forum gives.
As someone (a lawyer) who has been speaking, writing and advising clients since 1996 to address Year 2000 issues quickly, responsibly and ACCURATELY, I can tell you that lawyers aren't trying to "hush up" the issue or to prevent communications that would benefit business partners, but to remind clients of their legal and moral obligations to be ACCURATE. I have told more than one client: if you don't know what the answer is, say nothing at all until you do. Don't make matters worse by MISLEADING people. And if you tell people you're doing things to get there, then DO IT!!! Assume that you WILL be called to account for your statements someday, because your business partners will rely on your statements, just as you want to rely on theirs, so make your statements accurate and meaningful. Read my article in October's Industrial Computing magazine, "Behind the Year 2000 Myth," for an example of the kind of advice I give. The link has been posted here and on the research thread a number of times.
What happens (not with MY clients, of course) is that many BUSINESSPEOPLE don't want to accept responsibility for their own words and actions, so they tell people "my lawyers told me I can't tell you or I'll get sued." Then posters on threads start attributing all sorts of nefarious motives to lawyers generally and reading evil purposes into advice that was actually a call to behave responsibly!!!!!
I USED to post here regularly. Aaaaarggggghhhhhh!!!!!!!
Cathleen |
