Discover Card has a paperless sweepstakes going on right now. Fairly simple - get your statements online, get entered to win $5k-$15. At the bottom of the rules, I found this little gem:

ONLINE NOTICE:
ANY ATTEMPT BY AN INDIVIDUAL TO DELIBERATELY DAMAGE ANY WEB SITE OR UNDERMINE THE LEGITIMATE OPERATION OF THIS PROMOTION IS A VIOLATION OF CRIMINAL AND CIVIL LAWS, AND SHOULD SUCH AN ATTEMPT BE MADE, SPONSOR RESERVES THE RIGHT TO SEEK DAMAGES FROM ANY SUCH INDIVIDUAL TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW. Not responsible for faulty, incorrect or mistranscribed phone/e-mail transmissions, incorrect announcements of any kind, technical hardware or software failures of any kind including any injury or damage to any person's computer related to or resulting from participating in or experiencing any materials in connection with the promotion, lost or unavailable network connections, or failed, incomplete, garbled or delayed computer transmission that may limit a user's ability to participate in the promotion. Sponsor reserves the right to cancel or modify the promotion if fraud, misconduct or technical failures destroy the integrity of the program; or if a computer virus, bug, or other technical problem corrupts the administration or security of the program as determined by Sponsor/judging agency/administrator, in their sole discretion. In the event of termination, a notice will be posted online and the drawing will be conducted from among all eligible entries received prior to termination. Any damage made to the Web Site will be the responsibility of the authorized e-mail account holder of the e-mail address submitted at the time of entry. Proof of submitting entries will not be deemed to be proof of receipt by Sponsor. Any entries which are suspected of being fraudulent (including those using robotic, automatic, programmed or similar methods of participation) will be disqualified, based on determinations made solely by Sponsor. Sponsor reserves the right to prohibit the participation of an individual if fraud or tampering is suspected or if the account holder fails to comply with any requirement of participation as stated herein or with any provision in these Official Rules.

I understand the need for such statements. I'm not that good at hacking, but I suspect if I gave it an honest effort I could get my name or account number entered more than once. I understand that Discover has to protect itself, and I'm cool with that.

(Get it? Honest effort? ha...)

Now, perhaps it's just because I test software for a living, but this line in particular jumped out at me:

Any damage made to the Web Site will be the responsibility of the authorized e-mail account holder of the e-mail address submitted at the time of entry.

I can think of bugs that would cause damage to the site. If my email exposes one of those bugs I'm liable? That seems awfully silly.

Michael Bolton wrote and interesting post on the brief history of testing tours and dashboards. The post is in response to a pattern of not acknowledging earlier work. At the end of the posting he asks for feedback on the topic.