"David J. Starr" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@theworld.com:
I think that you have hit the nail on the head with your remark about bean counters and lawyers. I tell my students (business students) that there are three groups of people who should NEVER be involved in product design: the accountants, the marketing types, and the lawyers. If the accountants get involved, they will have a cafe selling hamburgers made of beef tallow, soybean meal, and sawdust because those are cheap. The marketers will want you to put all sorts of little bells, lights and whistles on your beef tallow, soybean meal, and and sawdust burgers. Finally, the lawyers will want you to have each customer sign a 347-page release of liability form before you can serve them your beef tallow, soybean meal, and sawdust burgers with the little bells, lights, and whistles on top.
I suspect that some lawyers at UP are just trying to justify their jobs, and, in the end, UP will find that they may have been in the right legally, but any victory will cost more than it is worth.
By the way, from what I have seen, it is not just a "few pennies" added to a model. It is more like $5.