RE: Programmer Liability

I would agree that to some degree end customers share a portion of the
blame for wanting a cheaper product, but that should not translate into
the vendor cutting corners when it comes to testing/QA.  It _should_
translate into a good, tested product at price point A.  Price point B
could include the features of A + other features to justify the higher
price.  Like XP Home vs. Pro, Office Standard vs. Pro, WebSphere Express
vs. Standard/Network Deployment, etc.

Also, I question whether or not vendors would actually do better if we
agreed to a higher price point.  I suspect many would simply pocket the
additional profit.


As to who to blame, the developer's company is to blame for delivering a
shoddy product, the customer is to blame for supporting such works by
paying for it, and the exploiter is to blame for taking advantage of the
exploits for undeserved personal gain.  There is blame all around.  But
the root cause is the shoddy product; the other issues wouldn't exist
without it.