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Startup to Offer Open Source Insurance

Posted by michael on from the throw-your-money-away dept.

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.

9 of 268 comments (clear)

  1. Malpractice Insurance by Shakrai · · Score: 5, Informative

    What's next - Developers having to pick up 'code malpractice' insurance? Egads.

    They already have it. The agency I work for has several carriers that will write a malpractice (officially called "Professional Liability") policy for computer nerds. The standard one that I've seen provides a million dollars of coverage in the event that you screw up and cause something like data loss or the like. The policy itself is pretty broadly worded and could cover everything from bugs in a program you wrote to a general mistake of stupidity dealing with media. As I recall they start at about $1,200+ a year depending on the type of business and the people involved.

    All insurance really does is protect you from losses that you couldn't (or don't want to) afford. The comment from the summary sounds sarcastic (as well as the "throw-your-money-away dept." tagline) but in reality in this sue happy world these types of policies are not a bad idea. Do you want to lose your business and livelihood over an honest mistake and some sue happy customer? A few hundred or thousand bucks for peace of mind is a small price to pay in this day and age.

    --
    I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
    We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
    1. Re:Malpractice Insurance by Shakrai · · Score: 5, Informative
      I'm no legal expert, but couldn't all of this be avoided with a proper disclaimer in the licence for the software?

      And in theory you can prevent people from suing you if you put up a "Beware of Dog" sign or a "Private Property" sign. In reality you'll always find some clever lawyer or easily-swayed jury that rules the other way.

      Are you going to trust the future of your business and life to a disclaimer?

      --
      I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
      We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
    2. Re:Malpractice Insurance by kfg · · Score: 5, Insightful

      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

  2. That alien abduction insurance by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Is very handy... especially the double payout for anal probing.

  3. Eye Strain Insurance by richarst1414 · · Score: 5, Funny

    I hope they start offering eye strain insurance soon because of all of the SCO related articles.

  4. alien abduction insurance? by morcheeba · · Score: 5, Funny

    Sure, I guess it makes sense because there have been more documented cases of alien abuductions than documented copied lines of UNIX.

    --
    HIV Crosses Species Barrier... into Muppets
  5. Re:"former editor"? by trick-knee · · Score: 5, Informative

    > I thought she still heads groklaw...

    as of Tue Mar 16 12:41:33 MST 2004 she hasn't made any announcement to the contrary...

  6. Programmers' malpractice? by PCM2 · · Score: 5, Informative
    What's next - Developers having to pick up 'code malpractice' insurance?
    Sounds great to me. Every place I've ever done contract programming for has a clause in their contract that basically says, "If somebody sues us, they sue you." Some of them are nicer about it, and pretty much just require you to appear in court if there's ever a problem. Others want you named as a defendant. Saying "don't screw up" wouldn't make me feel as comforted as a good insurance policy -- if such a thing exists?
    --
    Breakfast served all day!
  7. Warning: BLATANT PLUG by cleetus · · Score: 5, Interesting

    This summer I had the opportunity to work for BlackDuckSoftware.com. Black Duck has built software to help developers (from individuals to large corporations) manage their use of open source software. Essentially, the software enables firms to track the usage of open source code, determine conflicts (if any) and suggest methods of compliance. It takes into account methods of combining code, whether the code is for internal use or public distribution, any number of other considerations that involve open source license compliance. It is able to deal with code licensed under *all* of the certified open source licenses as well as many other proprietary licenses.

    While it is not insurance, and does not provide any kind of indemnification, it is a damn good management tool. Its goal is to allow companies to make use of open source code in such a way that full compliance is facilitated, and to avoid any uh-oh moments that happen after code is commerically released.

    I worked on the development of the license interpretation module. It involved reading (and re-reading) 50+ licenses and parsing their terms such that compatibility determinations and compliance requirements could be generated for every possible combination of license, code, distribution, concatenation, link, modularization, etc. of a software product. It was exhausting (and sometimes tedious) work, and it certainly made it easy to tell which licenses were written by lawyers, which by coders, and which were written with input from both. It gave me new understanding of why unenlightened legal departments sometimes shy away from open source. Nonetheless, the reality is these licenses exist, are in use today, and are all valid until some court says otherwise. Licensors (i.e. coders in the community) have every right to expect their terms to be adhered to.

    Being a geek myself, and a law student, it was pretty gratifying to see that a company wanted to build a product that helped managers to understand and not fear the open source phenomenon. Further, I think the product will really help firms stay fully compliant when they decide to use open source code. And that, in the end, is all our community can ask for.

    cleetus