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Florida DUI Law and Open Source

Posted by samzenpus on from the no-code-no-breath dept.

pete314 writes "A Florida court this Friday will hear arguments in a case where the accuracy of a breathalyzer is being scrutinized because the manufacturer refuses to release the source code. A state court ruling last year said that accused drunk drivers are entitled to receive details about the inner workings of the "mystical machine" that determined their guilt, and defense attorneys are now using that ruling to open up the device's source code.Is this part of a larger trend? With software bugs being a fact of life, consumers and organizations could claim that they need to be able to verify an application's source code before they accept that their calculations are accurate. Think credit card transactions, speed detecting radar guns, electronic voting machines..." Here is our previous story when this first became an issue in Florida.

8 of 400 comments (clear)

  1. I think it should be illegal to.. by picz+plz · · Score: 1, Funny

    drink and write open source software.

    Crazy moonbats.

  2. Remember, ... by bcat24 · · Score: 4, Funny

    ... friends don't let friends code drunk.

    1. Re:Remember, ... by Dorothy+86 · · Score: 5, Funny
      But the catch-22 is that people who code don't normally have friends.

      (calm down, mods... it's a joke!)

      --
      Game Overdrive - Gaming News
  3. Let me get this straight by commodoresloat · · Score: 5, Funny

    You go to a bar. Someone buys you ten beers. So your intoxication was free as in beer. Then you get pulled over and get a breathalyzer test which gets thrown out of court because the software was not free as in speech. So then you walk out of court, free as in Willy!

  4. Re:Not Necessarily Open Source by gbulmash · · Score: 2, Funny
    It's important to remember that visible source code isn't the only requirement for Open Source. For software to be Open Source, it's not only necessary that the source code be available, but also that users are free to modify it and redistribute modified or unmodified copies.

    So will we have to add more definitions and acronyms to the software lexicon?

    Would source code you're allowed to inspect, but cannot modify, be Published Unmodifiable Source (PUS)?

    How about Open Unmodifiable Computing Hardware (OUCH)?

    Boolean Logic Open Unmodifiable Source Executable (BLOUSE)?

    Suddenly your BLOUSE is filled with PUS...

    Okay, let's just forget we went there.

    - Greg

    --
    Start a happiness pandemic
  5. Re:Umm by kklein · · Score: 2, Funny

    Because more people get DUIs than vote, duh.

  6. Unreleased court transcript by orionware · · Score: 2, Funny

    Prosecuter: Your Honor, Mr. Smith was travelling at a high rate of speed, swerving side to side. He was pulled over, and the officer, upon approaching the car could smell alcohol. Mr. Smith was asked to submit to a breathalyzer test which he agreed to. His blood alcohol level was 1.6, twice the legal limit.

    Defense Attorney: Your Honor, this is preposterous. How can anyone sit there and expect me to think that the machine they are using is accurate. I have good information that these machines are in fact filled with raspberry jam and spit out completely random numbers. In fact, your honor, if you look hard enough you can even find a hack that will convert the machine into an mp3 player. It's quite obvious that we need to examine the source code that runs this snack dispenser or let my client go.

    Judge: I'm going to ask you for the last time. Remove the foil hat, the glare off of it is really starting to bug me.

    --


    Karma means nothing to me, so suck it...
  7. Don't drink and derive by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Slogan of the math club bar crawl in college