Slashdot Mirror
Taking On Software Liability - Again
An anonymous reader writes "You may remember an article in which a BBC correspondent wrote an article criticising current software licenses. In answer to the huge discussion that this brought about, he has written another article defending his views. From the article: 'It is possible to make error-free code, or at least to get a lot closer to it than we do at the moment, but it takes time and effort. Doing it will probably mean that commercially-available code is more expensive and cause major problems for free and open source software developers. But I still believe that the current situation is unsustainable, and that we should be working harder to improve the quality of the code out there.'"
There is also a big difference between consumer software like word processors and web browsers, and the massive information systems used internally in large companies.
The companies writing the large systems usually have contracts which mean they are liable for damages, and this increases both the cost and the reliability of the resulting programs.
I must assume he doesn't work with internal apps much.
Snowden and Manning are heroes.
If someone gave you a free frig and it ends up burning your house down, I guess you would still find that acceptable.