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Software Product Liability?
ben writes "Reuters just ran a story about the increasing number of calls for liability on the part of software developers, with a not-too-suprising focus on Microsoft and its uber-fallible IIS webserver. Given that many other engineering disciplines have some sort of accreditation and licensing body to enforce codes of professional ethics, I'm curious what impact the demand for such a creature in the software industry could have on Open Source developers, especially the part-time hobbyist ones. That is, establishment of some sort of Software Developer's license means the developer is potentially liable for whatever havoc his bugs may wreak, and traditionally the only environment with legal resources adequate to deal with such liability has been the megalithic corporate one."
(to the tune of the Kinks' "David Watts")
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Fe-fe-fe-feh feh, feh feh feh
I am a dull and simple geek
Cannot tell Linux from XP
And I still run DOS 3.3
And I wish I could censor on a whim
I wish I could be like Michael Sims
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And when I jerk off to hentai at night
I dream I could flame like Michael Sims
Drive James and Seth to lunacy
And take their website and claim I'm stalked
Wish I could be like Michael Sims
Wish I could be like Michael Sims
Wish I could be like Michael Sims
Mod myself up like Michael Sims
I wish I could be like Michael Sims
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He is the head of YRO
He is a member of SlashTeam
He is insightful and funny
And I wish all his modpoints belonged to me
I wish I could be like Michael Sims
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And all the posters on the site
Try to suck up to Michael Sims
They try their best but can't succeed
'Cause they won't engage in sodomy
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Wish I could be like...
Wish I could be like...
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(fade out)
You mean like Linux? All of it's bugs are because its drivers suck, right? I think it's actually a combination of sucky drivers as well as shitty code.
I always point to the ham radio market. In general, there are very few pieces of "bad" ham radio gear sold. Some may be better than others, but none are truly bad. Why? I believe it is because the FCC requires that one understand the gear before they can get a license and use it.
Computer consumers, in contrast, often understand practically nothing about what they are purchasing. They do not understand how software (or hardware) works, how it is designed, what it is reasonable to expect a computer to do and what it is not. As a result, there are marketing droids demanding that people be able to cut & paste from video editing software to word processing documents. This leads to the software engineering team spending an inordinate amount of time creating bloatware with as many bugs as features. Adding to this problem are the EULAs that software vendors use to shield themselves from any product liability lawsuits ("it's not a product, it's just a license to use the software"), thus undermining the only thing that had any possibility of keeping the software quality in check.
If licensing improved the quality of software, then MCSEs would be turning out works of art. And I think that we can all agree that it's not happening.
6) You can't count.
Send lawyers, guns, and money!
----an end to the EULA cop out and get out of jailo free card would NOT bothwer me or the other 99.999% of NON programmers out here who just want to use a computer. If that means only 5% "new and improved" software titles a year-so be it. Who cares? Most folks would rather have something that works than something that doesn't. If it means software-stuff has to be worked on in the shop until it's tough as nails and *really really* works, then so be it. All other products on the market can/do have liability issues, they also come out with improved versions, the difference is they can and do get sued when they "release" crap, which makes them put a tad more effort into WHAT they release. I see no reason software shouldn't. None whatsoever. It's a pretty weasly way to get out of cruddy work, using that "caveat emptor" EULA nonsense. It should have never been allowed to get established.
.00001% in meatworld in general, if that.
/., tuff ruck, most people are liable for their actions and work in the "real world" away from the monitor screen, software products should be the same way. Don't release it until it works, or be prepared to get sued eventually. People are just plain tired of stuff that is super hackable, unsafe, breaks your computer, etc. and less than .0001% of people "download" their operating systems, most OS software is SOLD for cash money on CD's by someone. And that includes windows, mac, linux, unix, bsd, irix, solaris-WHATEVER. And that "free open source"stuff is nonsense of course, zip is free. When someone can just hand you a bucket of bytes, then it'll be "free", until then, it costs time and bandwith and cash and hardware to get software, in one form or another. None of that stuff is "free". CALLING it "free" don't make it so. Every step of the way costs cash one way or the other. Some software OS is CHEAPER than others, but zip of it is "free", including any linux/bsd stuff. None of the companies that started this EULA crap should have been allowed to get away with it. So what if we had LESS operating systems and softweares now, maybe they might have WORKED better if here was liability involved, closed, so called "open" -it don't matter, it's a PRODUCT.
Acme widgets announces WIDGETNIX 2002 v. 8.9!!!!!
small print _this probably won't work, user is warned that it will foobar your machine no doubt, and is incompatable with this small list of 9873 other things that don't work and yada yada.
Oh, but it's OPEN SOURCE! Gee, that's like telling my mom her engine in her car is "Open source" because there's a manual someplace that has schematics of it. She isn't responsible if it breaks while still new or actually doesn't work just because there's a manual someplace? Huh? And downloading many GIGS of stuff over a modem and getting it to work every three months? HAHAHAHAHAH! How many people really honestly do this???? Some thousands in a nation of MILLIONS and a planet of BILLIONS?
JOKESKI. I even bet most d00ds here buy repo distros from like cheapiebytes or use burned copies from friends. And this is geek central. they need a poll here, really, how many ubergeeks really DL EVERYTHING. I'm guessing 10% tops here, and
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