Broadcast 2000 Removed From Public Access

VRteach writes: "I see that the developers of the fine multimedia software, Broadcast 2000, have removed their main product from public access. Their web site cites a worry of potential liability." The site says that "the distribution of Broadcast 2000 enhanced to unacceptable levels the risk of an individual experiencing significant financial damage due to the extremely expensive nature of high end video production and the high risk inherent in professional video business marketing." It also says they plan to keep issuing "minor works" for now, and as liability issues are resolved to again release major programs.

Comments

Re:Is this saying what I think it is?

[theancient1]

It sounds more like "this software could be used for a mission-critical operation, and if our software breaks, someone might sue us." They have the standard "no warranties" disclaimer, but they're saying that such a warning doesn't seem to carry much weight in today's lawyer-happy society.

Re:Mirrors?

[dane23]

It looka like Tucows still has it.

Re:Mirrors?

[Wesley Felter]

http://rpmfind.net//linux/RPM/sourceforge/heroines /bcast-2000b_va-1.i386.html

Re:Mirrors?

[ReelOddeeo]

It's not a d/l mirror, but my SuSE 7.2 Pro CD's have it. So I guess that won't go away anytime soon.

Re:the babelfish version...

[Thagg]

Actually, how I read this is that they were worried that somebody would try to use this software for production, and something would horribly fail, causing extreme duress. In the inevitable ensuing lawsuits, the Broadcast 2000 people would end up being sued into oblivion. It's not a nice way to go.

No amount of disclaimers and click-through agreements can keep these lawsuits from getting started, and once started they are incredible money-sinks.

Exactly this kind of thing happened to Burt Rutan, the designer of almost every interesting airplane over the last 20 years. His VariEze, and follow-on LongEZ were spectacular designs, but a few people built them poorly, died, and Burt was sued. He defended four of five of these lawsuits, and won every one, but decided that there were better ways to spend one's life, and pulled the plans off the market. In something parallel to what will happen here; there are xeroxed versions of the LongEZ plans out there if you really want them, in a samizdat kind of operation. Burt's current company, Scaled Composits continues to build exciting airplanes, but only for the corporate market.

thad

I think this is a hoax.

[mrAgreeable]

They are still distributing Cinelerra (see their sourceforge page, linked from their main site), and it seems to be very much along the same lines as Broadcast. If they were so worried, why keep distributing Cinelerra?

Here:
http://sourceforge.net/forum/forum.php?thread_id =9 4322&forum_id=42723
they mention makine Cinelerra a commercial program, but the message itself looks like it was either a joke or written by someone high at the time. Cinelerra is GPLed, by the way.

From their docs (manual.ps in the Cinerella distro):
"In mid 2000 designs for a Broadcast 2000 replacement were drafted. The Broadcast name was officially retired from the series and the software would now be called Cinelerra."

Re:I am not a lawyer, but..

[wings]

From the message posted on Sourceforge Here("http://sourceforge.net/forum/forum.php?forum _id=110712" for the paranoid), it appears that someone IS demanding 'compensation' for 'damages' caused by their software.