The certificate shall not be reproduced except in full

[JACEK1]

Hello everybody!

The certificate shall not be reproduced except in full without the written approval of the company.

As for the sentence above, I understand it as follows:

The certificate may only be reproduced in full by permission of the company in writing.

What do you think?

 

[tedmc]

The certificate shall not be reproduced except in full without the written approval of the company.

As the sentence stands, it means partial reproduction is not allowed without approval but full reproduction is allowed, which sounds silly.

You are better off deleting "except in full".

 

[teechar]

Did you write that sentence? Was "except in full" set off by two commas?

 

[Raymott]

The certificate shall not be reproduced except in full without the written approval of the company.

As for the sentence above, I understand it as follows:

The certificate may only be reproduced in full by permission of the company in writing.

No, it doesn't mean that. It means that you can reproduce it in full without the permission of the company.

If you want to partially edit it, leave clauses out - making it a completely different certificate, certifying something that the company did not intend - then you have to get permission from the company.
This makes sense.

PS: If you've ever read a Project Gutenberg book, it has this clause in the Conditions at the end:
"1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tmLicense terms from this work, or any files containing a part of thiswork or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm"
That is, you are free to distribute this book only if you include the full conditions, of which this is one condition.