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Save the Net, Sue a Software Maker
David Banisar, 2001-12-17

Safety standards and civil liability made automobiles safe. It can work for software too.

Comments Mode:
Save the Net, Sue a Software Maker 2001-12-17
Sean, bremerton Wa (4 replies)
Re: Sean 2002-01-06
guest@netpixies.net
Save the Net, Sue a Software Maker 2002-01-12
An old codger that used to be proud of his profession.
Save the Net, Sue a Software Maker 2001-12-17
System High
Save the Net, Sue a Software Maker 2001-12-17
Jesse (1 replies)
Save the Net, Sue a Software Maker 2001-12-17
philw (1 replies)
Save the Net, Sue a Software Maker 2001-12-18
Anonymous (1 replies)
Save the Net, Sue a Software Maker 2001-12-18
Robert A. Matern (3 replies)
Save the Net, Sue a Software Maker 2001-12-18
Brad Freeman
Save the Net, Sue a Software Maker 2001-12-18
kbrown@nospam.com (2 replies)
Save the Net, Sue a Software Maker 2001-12-19
Robert A. Matern
Save the Net, Sue a Software Maker 2001-12-18
theX (2 replies)
Save the Net, Sue a Software Maker 2001-12-19
Robert A. Matern
Save the Net, Sue a Software Maker 2001-12-18
Anonymous (1 replies)
Save the Net, Sue a Software Maker 2001-12-19
Bill reilly
Save the Net, Sue a Software Maker 2001-12-18
Anonymous (1 replies)
Save the Net, Sue a columnist 2001-12-19
Anonymous (1 replies)
Save the Net, Sue a columnist 2001-12-20
Anonymous (1 replies)
Save the Net, Sue a columnist 2001-12-31
Annoyed Reader
Save the Net, Sue a Software Maker 2001-12-19
I Speak from Experience
Save the Net, Sue a Software Maker 2001-12-19
Rob John (1 replies)
Legal Clarifications... 2001-12-19
BillReilly
Sue Tim Burners Lee 2001-12-21
Anonymous
OS and App tools NOT ready for Prime time= lawsuit city! 2001-12-21
we are years away from having tools that coders can use safely (ex: SELinux and CycloneC)! (1 replies)
Save the Net, Sue a Software Maker 2001-12-29
Anonymous (1 replies)
Save the Net, Sue a Software Maker 2001-12-30
Sean Ackley <securityfocus@ackind.net>
Sue them ALL!!! 2001-12-31
JeffM (1 replies)
Get a brain... 2002-01-04
Matt Hargraves
You're really that blind, aren't you?

Require registration (don't they do this with cars?) and notify the customer via snail mail or e-mail (user's choice) when a bug is found so that they can fix it. Give them a manual that's worth a damn and the burden is on the user to actually read it to limit your liability to bugs instead of stupid user tricks.

If your product is completely a piece of crap (M$ WinME anyone?) and causes data/money loss (all data loss is a loss of money, it takes time to enter data and time=money) then they should be vulnerable for that. I don't know how many people lost data because of WinNT SP2. How about when M$ changed to NTFS5 with a SP. What do you do when you can't access your data because of the change to your FS? There are lots of other products (most of them with "Crash" in their names, like Crashguard) that cause crashes and potential data loss, shouldn't they be prosecuted for costing someone money because it was used as instructed and lost money as a result?

If your product causes data loss, you need to recall it. Force registration (and don't spam the person with marketing crap because they did so) and use it to help the user instead of using it to line your pockets.

Responsibility shouldn't be avoided because you wrote a slick (and BTW, unenforceable) license agreement that you force people to agree to before they can see it.

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Link to this comment: http://www.securityfocus.com/comments/columns/47/9674#9674
Save the Net, Sue a Software Maker 2002-01-11
Blacksheep







 

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