UK Court Finds Company Liable For Software Defects

normsky writes "A software company's stipulation that it couldn't be held accountable for the poor performance of its software was unfair and could not be enforced, the High Court has said. 'Pursuant to the Sale of Goods Act 1979, a term is to be implied into the contract that Entirety would be fit for the purpose for which it was bought, namely that the system would increase revenue and occupancy levels and would allow quicker check-in and check-out, including accurately processing groups and making changes to group reservations while preserving the accuracy of the system. I am satisfied that Entirety was not fit for the purpose for which it was sold,' his Honor Judge Toulmin wrote."

Comments

Re:Yay! finally some accountability for all those

[delinear]

From SoGA 1979:

• 1.1 This Act applies to contracts of sale of goods [...]
• 2.1 A contract of sale of goods is a contract by which the seller transfers or agrees to transfer the property in goods to the buyer for a money consideration, called the price.

So yes, giving it away does indeed bypass this law. In that case the only real remedy might be if your code is so unfit for purpose that it could be claimed to be negligent, but there are very strict rules and tests in place to establish negligence, and the finger of blame would more likely fall on the person who relied on your claims without testing them unless there were very special circumstances.