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by psionides 344 days ago
Why do people write licenses with whole paragraphs WRITTEN IN ALL CAPS LIKE THIS?
3 comments

From the Uniform Commercial Code:

"'Conspicuous', with reference to a term, means so written, displayed, or presented that, based on the totality of the circumstances, a reasonable person against which it is to operate ought to have noticed it."

What are some of the ways you can tell if a term in a legal document is conspicuous? One of the ways mentioned in the UCC:

"a heading in capitals equal to or greater in size than the surrounding text"

So apparently the thinking is that if you make everything in the license all caps, it is all a conspicuous term, and thus a court will be convinced that a reasonable person ought to have noticed it.

US law says that warranty/liability disclaimers need to be "conspicuous". Making it ALL CAPS is the easiest way to do that in plain text.
Prevents any dispute over the significance of a certain word or phrase being capitalized vs not.