Software Liability

[MacWheel99@xxxxxxx]

http://www.eweek.com/article/0,3658,s%253D701%2526a%253D21030,00.asp

Except in those states that have passed UCITA (meaning that software
companies are free from any liability for providing computer systems that are
totally unreliable), this article predicts that big money lawsuits, like
those that gave the tobacco industry a hard time, are inevitable against the
computer software industry.

The standards for software quality seem to be in a downward plunge, leading
to massive business losses, such as from computer viruses & theft of computer
records, like credit card account numbers.

The article compares 3 approaches for fixing this challenge.

Industry-defined standards, like how hollywood & entertainment protect
children from inappropriate content, are not legally binding, and difficult
to enforce.

Federal regulation is difficult to implement or enforce, given very heavy
lobbying & you see how effective the anti-trust theory was against Microsoft
practices.

Lawsuits are loved by lawyers, who will pocket most of the proceeds & unlike
many other legal cases where the victims get somewhat annoyed about this, a
lot of people are so annoyed with the garbage that passes for quality
software, that they might not care if the Lawyers get rich off of this, so
long as it sends a chilling message to the software vendors.

MacWheel99@aol.com (Alister Wm Macintyre) (Al Mac)