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Lawsuit Against Microsoft Over Insecure Software
Cinematique writes "Reuters reports that a California-based lawsuit alleges the Redmond software giant produces software with little concern for security and that their products are highly susceptible to, "massive, cascading failures." Should Microsoft's software be treated any differently than, say, automobiles?"
Valve might want to take a look at this lawsuit considering their potentially devestaing loss reported earlier today. According to Gabe Newell, from whom the source code of their latest was stolen, a hacker gained access to his machine "via a buffer overflow in Outlook's preview pane." Read his entire message here.
"I can not bring myself to believe that if knowledge presents danger, the solution is ignorance" - Isaac Asimov
The problem is : if Microsoft is judged responsible, what would happen to others in the same situation ? Especially to free software ?
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How long before SCO joins in and sues Microsoft? "Your honor, this code is so crappy, it *clearly* had to come from us!"
Besides, every time I see an exploit, it's after Microsoft has already issued a patch. This would seem to suggest that they aren't as responsible for the problems as many seem to think they are; as soon as they're aware of an issue, they fix it. Maybe they could design the stuff secure out of the box, but they'd be the first manufacturer to accomplish such a feat.
Stop using it if it's a problem. There are alternatives now.
Try not. Do or do not, there is no try.
-- Dr. Spock, stardate 2822-3.
It specifically says in M$'s TOS that the software is not to be used for any life-critical applications. In fact, QNX is the only compnay that will license software for life critical stuff. Microsoft also has a non-responsability clause in their TOS. This is going to be a long, drawn out fight, like the one against tobacco companies.
Statistically, one could probably claim that Microsoft products have killed people in an indirect manner.
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With the horrible network congestion and system compromisation that has come with the recent rash of massive MS worms, you do not have to have agreed to a EULA in order to be harmed by Microsoft's poor design and blatant disregard for security.
In other words: it has reached the point where even people who are not Microsoft product users are harmed by Microsoft's irresponsibility. The messes created by the holes in MS products make EVERYONE a possible target for collateral damage.
Severity isn't the only issue. If your automobile was faulty in a way that caused it to safely pull over to the side of the road but it wouldn't restart for half an hour, you'd still see recalls for lost time and money.
The danger here isn't just that it feeds a lot of lawyers, and isn't making software manufacturer produce less buggy code -- that's something that's been needed for a long time.
The danger is that someone like MS says "OK, we'll accept liability, but only if it's our software, running on our operating system, with no additional code on the system that we didn't install, and only on hardware we approve of, and we end up with even more of a monopoly.
Back in the 1980s, a Japanese worker was killed by a robot on an assembly line due to a software failure. And robot control systems are very throughly tested before a new model of robot is released. Microsoft is trying to muscle their way into the embedded marketplace; do you want software that has plenty of known defects/security issues running your robot?
If "disco" means "I learn" in Latin, does "discothèque" mean "I learn technology"?
you'll notice the case seems to hinge on Microsoft's monopoly status.
... I don't know. Since I'm not a lawyer, this is where the case falls apart for me.
If they did not have a monopoly on desktop computer systems, this type of lawsuit wouldn't be a problem for them. Since, due to all sorts of vendor lock-in promoted by Microsoft itself, it is difficult for users to pick a different desktop, the lack of security in their software ( i.e. buffer overflows everywhere )
But maybe a monopolist which continues to abuse it's position _should_ be held to a higher standard than others ? Is it not arguable that MS has the resources required to audit all of it's code and fix such issues ? Maybe not technically true, but arguable in court...