[whatwg] Pre-Last Call Comments

[Andrew W. Hagen]

In current-work, section 4.6.6, there is this explanation of the small 
element:

"Small print is typically legalese describing disclaimers, caveats, 
legal restrictions, or copyrights. Small print is also sometimes used 
for attribution."

This paragraph should be removed. Please do not advocate, encourage, or 
indicate acceptance that any legal text should appear in small print. In 
the law, in some circumstances, the size of the print can support an 
argument that a contract, disclaimer, restriction, caveat, legalese, or 
other legal text should be ruled invalid by a court. Furthermore, it is 
generally a bad idea to encourage people to put legal text in small 
print. This includes copyright notices, as well as any other notice. 
Legal text should appear in regular-sized print to keep it as readable 
as possible. When legal text is put into small print, that is 
regrettable. The paragraph should be removed. The best policy would be 
to not mention legal text in the context of the small element.

Secondly, a subsequent example paragraph is not quite right. The 
statement that it contains "a copyright" is off. It's just a notice of a 
copyright. Furthermore the general principle that should be recognized 
here is that no one should be led by example to place legal text in 
small print. The example in question might be changed to:

In this example the footer contains contact information and an aside.

<footer>
<address>
   For more details, contact
<a href="mailto:js at example.com">John Smith</a>.
</address>
<p><small>E-mail checked regularly.</small></p>
</footer>


Thank you.

Andrew Hagen
contact2009 at awhlink.com