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Holding Developers Liable For Bugs
sebFlyte writes "According to a ZDNet report, Howard Schmidt, ex-White House cybersecurity advisor, thinks that developers should be held personally liable for security flaws in code they write. He doesn't seem to think that writing poor code is entirely the fault of coders though: he blames the education system. He was speaking in his capacity as CEO of a security consulting firm at Secure London 2005."
And hold the makers of cop killer bullets liable for the cops they kill.
This the Howard Schmidt who left being chief security officer for Microsoft to join the Bush administration. This is the Bush administration that let Microsoft off with a slap on the wrist in their antitrust suit. This was the antitrust suit that attempted to hold Microsoft responsible for their policy of destroying or buying-out competitors rather than improving their own products.
Surprise, surprise. Bill has seen the light. He's a reformed whore. No longer will Microsoft be peddling crapware and relying on anticompetitive agreements, marketing bullshit and sabatoging competing programs to win the day.
No, no. They'll be relying on a much more respectable form of mischief. Government regulation.
The Microsoft that told the US courts to fuck off, and is busy telling the EU the same, is now buying out their latest (last?) competitor. Only this one has guns.
Well, here's what I have to say to Microsoft, and to Howard Schmidt: die. You created this market. You lowered the bar. You made software a race to sell the most features for the least cost with no regard for security or functionality. You evolved a competitor that can't be bought out.
Now, OSS is beating you at your own slimy game. And guess what? OSS will win. Frivilous lawsuits or not. Free Software will win. Software patents or not. DRM or not. Liability laws or not. The market will win, and users will win. You have nowhere to go but down. OSS has nowhere to go but up. Innovation and choice will beat out marketing and manipulation.
"I assumed blithely that there were no elves out there in the darkness"
Candy causes obesity and diabetes, so let's sue Jolly Rancher
False - eating too much of ANYTHING causes obesity and diabetes -- notice the key of "too much"
Pornography causes blindness, so let's sue Bambi Woods.
Parently false and you know it. If you're going to try and contradict a factually-based argument you need to use a factually-based argument.
You WAKE UP and take responsibility for YOUR OWN actions. Tobacco is a NTT (non-threshold toxicant) and several of it's carcinogens are non-threshold. That means exposure to ONE, ONE SINGLE MOLECULE, can cause cancer. I don't smoke, my fiancee doesn't smoke, my friends don't smoke. We're however FORCED to by people smoking - smoking on the road, smoking on the sidewalk, smoking outside our appartment when our windows are open [forcing us to close our windows], smoking in a neighboring appartment when their windows are open and so are ours [yet again forcusing us to close our windows].
Then the tobacco companies supressed that information: that vital information so that people knew they were doing something that was going to cause cancer.
I agree with you - people who have started smoking since those cases were won [ie anyone my age that smokes] is a MORON and has NO RIGHT to sue the tobacco companies.
However if I got lung cancer linked to exposure to second hand smoke i have EVERY RIGHT to sue the tobacco companies (and every smoker in america) for exposing me to carcinogens directly against my will in violation of my constitutional rights.
If you cannot keep politics out of your moderation remove yourself from the Mod Lottery.. NOW!