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Laws to Punish Insecure Software Vendors?

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the and-the-land-of-the-free dept.

Gambit Thirty-Two writes "An influential body of researchers is calling on the US Government to draft laws that would punish software firms that do not do enough to make their products secure." Yeah that'll work.

3 of 581 comments (clear)

  1. Everyone would be in violation by alen · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Linux, Solaris, HP-UX, MS WIndows and a bunch of other products have holes in them that SANS tells others about. Has there ever been a piece of software with no security holes?

  2. Just like a LLP by Mr.+Fred+Smoothie · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The software producer's liability should be limited to the amount of their financial return on the software, except in cases where gross negligence is apparent. If I never made a dime of the sale of the software, I should be liable only for that $0.

    --

  3. Unsafe at any speed by Animats · · Score: 5, Interesting
    I've been proposing this for years. What's needed is to require commercial software companies to provide a "full warranty", as defined in current Federal law.

    It took legislation to make cars safe. The auto companies hated it. They fought every inch of the way. But it made the auto industry grow up and make their products really work, no matter what.

    Every major industry goes through this transition, where society insists that the technology work safely. Railroads did. Steam boilers did. Autos did. Civil engineering did. Electric power did. It's time for computing to do it.

    It's time for the software industry to grow up and stop hiding behind one-sided licensing agreements. Software is too important in modern life to be as crappy as it is.