When a single component fails in an assembled product, the manufacturers of all the successful components should not bear the cost of a strict liability case against a single defective component. Some companies simply combine parts from other manufacturers for sale. See Step-Saver v. In Step-Saver , the one component manufacturer attempted to bring a breach of the implied warranty of merchantability against a manufacturer of terminals. Here the value-added package was decided to be the cause of the conflict, the terminal was shown to conform to industry standards, therefor no breach by the terminal manufacturer.
Software is a product.
The court found the boxtop warranty disclaimers ineffective based on other contract actions of the parties, but most reporters believe that boxtop licenses will not be supported by the courts as a liability limiting device in the future.