I agree completely, if you are offering it for free, you're doing a service! But the state of legal practice in the US is pitiable at best. Our court system heard (and ruled on) a civil case where an elderly woman bought a cup of coffee from a McDonalds drive-thru, took the lid off to drink it (while still in her car), spilled it in her lap and received some serious burns due to the temperature of the drink. McDonalds stated they serve coffee very hot so it will be an acceptably warm temperature when the customer arrives at their location and can consume the drink. She sued...and won, I believe. It say's on the menu HOT COFFEE but the court ruled in her favor.
This is a common-day myth, as too few have expanded upon the case. The woman did win, but only because that McDonalds in particular had their coffee temperature near 35 degrees above health saftey standards, and they had been warned before. That means this coffee was anywhere from 95-125 degrees F (the liquid was actually 190 degrees F). That's pippin hot! So she didn't win because she couldn't read the labels. She won because that company went FAR beyond health saftey standards, and had been warned multiple times on their coffee temperature and not taking the time to put the lids on all the way.


The point I'm trying to make is that most "unfair" and odd court rulings usually have a very good reason. Keep in mind that you can't be an idiot and make it into the court system, as it requires a TON of schooling and then knowing enough for you to get elected. The court cases that have rulings which seem "odd" are not because the judge was dumb, but because the losing party (in this case McDonalds) will begin to spread word about the case to the media as soon as it the case begins. So no one will look into the actual documentation of the casae and why she actually won, but instead just trust what they heard on the intarweb/Fox News.

sources:

http://corpreform.typepad.com/corpre...uth_about.html

http://lawandhelp.com/q298-2.htm

http://www.centerjd.org/free/mythbus..._mcdonalds.htm

http://www.lectlaw.com/files/cur78.htm