Do White papers have any legal force?

[Roxterrio]

Spent quite some time googling this and couldn't find any certain information, so decided to ask here.

Some put different Legal Disclaimers in their White Papers, some don't. Are there any sort of rules or maybe good practices you would recommend?

Hoping this will also be helpful for others!

[anobtc]

I think it depends on where they registered their company (in legal) and legal related in that country. They need put Legal Disclaimer in Whitepaper, that is a needed requirement.

[Ix]

They are likely just trying to absolve themselves of wrongdoing for selling you what would be considered an illegal security in countries with developed legal frameworks.

[icalical]

It depend on the country where the company established, in some countries where Blockchain related ICOs are legal and has legal standing, then the whitepaper have legal force. But when it doesn't I think the whitepaper just to state their legal position to the Investors.

[Jobbernowl]

There are no rules in drawing up Whitepaper. This process is not regulated in any way, therefore it's just a flight of thoughts and ideas of developers.
If the project goes along the path of official and legal business development, then there are a lot of licensing documents etc. But I have not seen such projects lately. Basically, it's just a promise and no specifics (legal address, taxpayer number, registration, etc.). Just nothing, just words.

[olari]

I never believe in White paper so much, cuz everyone can write what he wants and think that White Paper protects you against spam is not very clever. Legal disclaimer is good, but not very useful.

[Roxterrio]

It depend on the country where the company established, in some countries where Blockchain related ICOs are legal and has legal standing, then the whitepaper have legal force. But when it doesn't I think the whitepaper just to state their legal position to the Investors.

Are there any sources you can point towards saying whitepapers might have legal force in some countries?

[illiki23]

Well, whitepapers have definitely been used in litigation when they went after various groups for security law violations.  For example they used quotes from a whitepaper to show ico developers were claiming their tokens would go up in value.  Not exactly what you are looking for but related.