It's quite possible that the muckety-mucks who signed off on this in the first place were unaware of the implications. But at this point, the technical details

It's quite possible that the muckety-mucks who signed off on this in the first place were unaware of the implications. But at this point, the technical details should be known even to the clueless pointy-hair types. It's probable that their lawyers told them to make this claim to lessen their exposure to lawsuits. If they admitted any kind of problem they'd be in hot water, but now the burden is on anyone bringing a suit to prove them wrong. The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers.