BBC Commentator Goes After Software Licensing

An anonymous reader writes "Bill Thompson, a regular commentator on the BBC World Service programme Go Digital, criticizes current software licenses (including the GPL) for giving developers 'freedom from responsibility which would be considered wholly unacceptable in almost any other sphere of activity, public or private'." From the article: "A friend of mine is a children's writer. When she writes a non-fiction book she is typically asked to sign a contract that indemnifies the publisher against legal costs resulting from errors of fact in the book. If she was to suggest a school experiment that involved drinking sulphuric acid, because she'd confused it with acetic, then she'd be in big trouble. Yet I can't do anything when a company produces software that exposes my online banking details to any script kiddie with time to spare, because I've agreed a license that removes such liability. "

Comments

GPL

[Joehonkie]

I bet his wife gives away her books for free, too. On a more serious note, this is more expansion of the culture of victimization and the lack of responsibility that is taking over the Western world. Nothing is ever our fault, we muyst always find someone else to hold responsible for problems that we should be tough enough and capable enough to not get into or to solve ourselves.

All she has to remember is...

[MrByte420]

Little Johnny was a boy. He isn't anymore. For what he thought was H20 Was H2S04

you don't "license" use of a book

[Yonder Way]

The license is an agreement. If you don't like the terms, don't accept the license, and don't use the software.

There is a lot of crap out there about companies liking proprietary software because it gives them someone to sue when the software breaks catastrophically. That Microsoft has about a $40 billion dollar war chest, earned almost entirely through the sale of very broken software, pokes some big holes in that theory.

You're getting software for free. Don't bitch about indemnity in the license.

Separate Coding and Liability

[Renegade Lisp]

To be held liable for every line of code that you write goes very much contrary to the free software / open source world, where developers often simply scratch their personal itch, or work out of a genuine interest in the matter. It is impossible for such individuals to get the financial backing (i.e. insurance) so that they can take this level of responsibility for their creations.

The solution, I think, is that the realms of coding and of liability need to be separated. Let the coders code and let service companies such as IBM work together with them to provide support and, if needed, liability for customers that need it. This is exactly what happens when IBM "sells" Linux to Wallstreet, for example. They sell the kind of responsibility for the software that individual developers could by no means provide.

EULAs do not provide any more protection

[LightStruk]

Yet I can't do anything when a company produces software that exposes my online banking details to any script kiddie with time to spare, because I've agreed a license that removes such liability.

That's exactly what you've done when you agree to a license from Microsoft.
From the Windows XP Home EULA, with caps removed to get past lameness filter:

To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, in no event shall Microsoft or its suppliers be liable for any special, incidental, punitive, indirect, or consequential damages whatsoever (including, but not limited to, damages for loss of profits or confidential or other information, for business interruption, for personal injury, for loss of privacy, for failure ot meet any duty including of good faith or of reasonable care, for negligence ...

and so on and so on.

With this amount of legal protection, I feel completely safe using Microsoft products!

malpractice caps do NOT decrease premiums

[Travoltus]

Just so you know, malpractice premiums do not decrease for doctors in states where malpractice awards are capped to $250,000. Most lawsuits are launched when doctors maim or kill patients due to negligence, not because of highly publicized frivolous reasons. Your analogy is flawed, to say the least.

Now let's get back on topic. It's wrong for people to make excuses for bugs in code which expose my personal information to hackers, stalkers and marketers. I'd just as soon see the industry grind to a halt until they find a way to nip these miscreants in the bud. And no, I can't opt out of this dangerous system unless I stop driving (so much for being able to get food), close my bank account (yeah, hide my money under my bed so a thief has a reason to physically rob me and then kill my whole family to get rid of witnesses), declare myself dead (to retire my SSN - whoops, that's illegal, welcome to Club Fed! - or at least, welcome to joblessness) and practically move out of the country (well, actually that's a good idea if Canada is my destination).

Thanks to stupid programmers there's absolutely no way anyone can protect themselves from identity thieves. The only reason why someone hasn't hijacked you is that they don't care to.

Now please, come back after you find yourself having to fight for years to fix your credit after a hacker stole your personal information off Lexis-Nexis and then tell me they shouldn't stop the digital train for some major overhauls. Until you're a victim of the gaping flaws in the digital fortress you really don't understand the sharpness of that sword of Damocles that is swinging back and forth over your head.

Ya, more or less

[Sycraft-fu]

You choose to accept the risk, in trade for the benefits. Designing a system with no bugs is expensive and time consuming. You have to test things extensively at every level. That also means testing all the possible interactions. Not only how the OS interacts with the hardware, but how it interacts with the software, and how it interacts with each other. So when you design a system like that, the hardware neede to be known, as does all the software. You can't have it run on random comoddity hardware using random software beacuse then unforseen problems can result.

So by choosing to run software cheaply and quickly developed in random environments, you choose to accept teh fact bugs may occur.

To me, demanding that commoddity software on commoddity hardware run without bugs is like demanding that an automobile on the public streets never get in to an accident, even one caused by driver error, unforsseen conditions, or other drivers. Can't happen. If you want gaurentteed operation, you need controlled conditions.