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Would Vendor Liability for Bugs Kill OSS?

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the code-clean dept.

Glyn Moody writes "Bruce Schneier has written an interesting column for Wired suggesting that vendors should be made liable for bugs in their software. But where would this leave open source developers? Would what seems like a great idea actually be the death of free software?"

2 of 377 comments (clear)

  1. I wouldn't. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I wouldn't contribute to OSS if I'd be exposing myself to a lawsuit because some dipshit found a creative way to exploit my code. They're the guilty party, not me.

  2. You can add a multiply factor... by scsirob · · Score: 4, Interesting

    If you want things to really hurt, multiply the purchase price by 10 or so. That would actually constitute a penalty to distribute buggy software for commercial vendors while still not impacting those who give the software away for free.

    Large software products will never be entirely bug-free. To keep things reasonable, there should be a standard time-to-fix so commercial vendors also have a fair chance of cleaning up after a mistake.

    --
    To Terminate, or not to Terminate, that's the question - SCSIROB