Richard Sullivan (richsul@earthlink.net)
Tue, 29 Jun 1999 09:42:50 -0600
First off I am not a lawyer but have consulted with them on this issue over
the years.
Negligence and damages are two necessary elements to be proven in a law
suit. As to the issue of negligence, how a firm advertises and targets its
product audience is crucial. Also the nature of the product is an issue.
Bay City Cranes have one audience and Big Wheel Tricycles have another.
For instance, in the audio and Hi-Fi industry you may note that there is a
distinct dividing line between "professional" gear and "consumer" gear.
Some companies even go so far as to have two distinct divisions with
different names like Teac (consumer) and Tascam (professional.) It is often
not even a matter of price or quality as some consumer gear can cost
thousands more than some the professional gear although the professional
gear is usually more expensive.
One main difference is that pro gear generally is built on a "floating"
ground and this avoids having your recording studio put the local radio
station on every recording. Floating grounds are more dangerous. It is
expected that professional users won't do the same dumb things that
consumers might do so you are generally protected. Even the connectors on
the back are different to help keep the units from being in mixed company.
Pro gear has BNC connectors and consumer has RCA.
This is one of the main reasons the big chemical companies don't sell to
"consumers." If I buy 100 kilos of potassium chlorate and end up accidently
making La Bomba Grande in my back room, I am going to have a hell of a time
convincing a jury that Mallinkrodt was negligent in selling it to me. Some
16 year old boy who wants to make his own fireworks and buys some potassium
chlorate is going to give his parents a real nice reason for a big law suit.
By the same token if you make and sell photographs you are a professional
and have less cause. If you are a casual shooter shooting slides on your
vacation you are a notch below the photographer with a darkroom.
In general (and it's quite a generality) alt-photographers by the nature of
alt-photography have a somewhat higher expectation of expertise that the
run-of-the-mill amateur photography.
I've sat in the middle and watched the tightening of the restrictions to
access to chemicals over the last two decades. Some countries are getting
freakier and freakier over anything chemical being shipped to them. Even
though there are strict international standards now over what is Hazmat and
what isn't individual customs agents and offices will make there own
determination. Ferric oxalate trips them up all the time as it is not
listed as Hazmat but also does not appear in any catalog. It just plain is
not listed and for that reason it freaks them out. It gets weirder with
pre-packaged kits like Van Dyke and gum. We've had potassium ferricyanide
held up because they thought it was plain old cyanide.
Sometimes things that are normally harmless like phosphoric acid are
restricted due to the fact that they corrode aluminum and UPS does not want
its planes dissolving in mid-air. This makes a lot of sense.
99% goes through without a hitch, it's just fighting for the last one
percent that get snagged along the way is a pain. If there is a 25 ml
bottle of 1% ammonium dichromate in a big shipment that is causing concern,
the whole shipment gets held up. There is little that we can do if it is
held up in French or Nigerian customs. That has to be dealt with by
recipient who then gets us writing letters explaining the nature of the
chemicals etc.
Oh and there is the periodic 100 gm bottle that gets snagged because it
exceeds the weight limit for a certain chemical because the UPS shipping
clerk does not know the difference between kilograms and grams
It is a multifaceted problem and if things keep going the way they have for
the last two decades, we don't have a lot of time left.
--Dick Sullivan
505-474-0890 FAX 505-474-2857
<http://www.bostick-sullivan.com>http://www.bostick-sullivan.com
http://www.workingpictures.com
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