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Startup to Offer Open Source Insurance
ThePretender writes "From the Infoworld article, 'Open Source Risk Management LLC (OSRM), a startup company that last month hired Pamela Jones, editor of the popular Groklaw.net Web site, as director of litigation risk research, plans to soon begin offering insurance policies to companies using open source software but fear that they may be sued, according to a company spokeswoman'. What's next - Developers having to pick up 'code malpractice' insurance? Egads." Might as well get some alien abduction insurance while you're at it.
Forget Linux vs SCO and who's right or wrong..
Look at the broader picture. All that stuff out there on sourceforge. Someone in some cubicle at some business decides some obscure project is useful, and starts using it.
But, that project is illegal. It's stolen code, violating patents and copyrights.
It's that kind of a bullshit legal snare that could send a young business into chapter 11.
If MS or Apple or Adobe stole code for their products, they'd be on the hook for using that stolen code for profit.
If the code was open source though, who do you go after? The people profiting from it - the end user.
Makes absolute sense. In fact, it was the lack of this sort of protection that has kept the company I work for away from OSS. Perhaps I could sway them now.
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
Is it just me, or is anyone else worried about the incentive structure this sets up?
I mean, now an unscrupulous open source developer could intentionally insert some blatantly stolen code, claiming it's their own; some in-cahoots business with a copyright on the code can take everyone to court; the insurance will have to pay out big time, and the company slips a million to the asshole developer under the table.
The Open Source movement gets a bunch of bad PR, the code needs an emergency re-write, some scoundrels make a killing, and the insurance company rethinks its business model.
I know insurance investigators can go about investigating and trying to stop this from happening, but it seems like a very hard thing to prove, as along as the payment to the programmer is channeled very secretly.
Can anyone tell me how to set my sig on Slashdot?
In reality you'll always find some clever lawyer or easily-swayed jury that rules the other way.
Without even going that far, the act of being sued can be devastating, even if you just fight for a year and then they back off and it never really goes to trial.
Let's say a hundred bucks or so every time your lawyer picks up the phone. Several hundred for a letter. A grand for a simple motion. A couple months of just futzin' around and the legal bills can add up in a hurry.
I know of a judge who treats every petty charge as if it were a federal case. Really comes down hard on everyone, right down to a simple parking violation. And yet if you look at his conviction records they're no different than average.
When asked what gives he said, " I make them have to get a lawyer. Now that is punishment."
It isn't usually losing a suit that hurts. It's simply being involved in one. You have to get a lawyer. And anyone can sue you over damned near anything.
KFG
" I'm no legal expert, but couldn't all of this be avoided with a proper disclaimer in the licence for the software?"
ABSOLUTELY NOT! Trust me on this one. Insurance is about having a guy on your side with a team of experienced lawyers. That is what it is for. If you don't have that, they can skin you alive. Because of some bad advice I got from my insurance broker, I spent over $100,000 on attorneys fees for a case that a jury would have laughed out of court. But that's the rub: the plaintiff's lawyers make it as expensive as possible to get to court, and even there you better be good looking and well spoken or the jury might decide to split the difference. Heck, with all those big words getting thrown around, you could lose because a single juror misunderstood something trivial.
The reality is that there is no justice for a small business standing alone. Lawyers are sharks and you are penguins. Tasty, tasty, defenseless penquins. They know they can wear you down, because there is nothing you can do to stop them. You can't represent yourself, because one mistake in filing means you lose the whole case and your house, savings and life goes down the tubes.
Despite the above, I'm not really bitter. It's over and I'm glad it is over. But I really understand the need for insurance now, which is to bring your own personal shark to the party...
-Jim