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Microsoft at Heart of Calls for Software Liability | |
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| Time: 00:00 EST/05:00 GMT | News Source: Reuters | Posted By: Todd Richardson | ||
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Microsoft Corp. , a company known for its popular software and its very deep pockets -- but also glitches in some products -- is a liability lawyer's dream: the big game target that always gets away. For decades, software makers have been protected from lawsuits as U.S. courts have struggled with the task of defining something as abstract and fast-changing as computer code. But now a growing number of voices within the industry and government are arguing for software to be held to the same standards as other products, a potential reform that puts the world's largest software vendor squarely in its sights. Although it's hard to put a dollar figure on the potential risk to Microsoft, with almost $39 billion in cash and short-term investments, the company would be the obvious deep-pocketed target, said Mark Rasch, a computer and Internet policy lawyer in Bethesda, Maryland, and former head of the U.S. Department of Justice's computer crime unit. | ||
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| #1 By 135 (209.180.28.6) at 6/17/2002 5:23:17 PM |
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#4 - Ok great, so Redhat still disclaims all warranty and now when I walk into BigCo I'll tell them that. "Guys, if you use Linux you put your company at risk because they take no responsibility for their crap. With my product, we offer you a warranty."
macrosslover - Agreed. One of our Systems Analysts told me that the difference between building a bridge and building software is that bridge engineers don't need to worry about what might happen if the user tries to land a 747 on the bridge. My opinion is that software liability is probably a bad idea. However I do feel that software publishers should not be allowed to disclaim warranty. Liability and Warranty are two different issues. |
| #2 By 61 (65.32.168.97) at 6/17/2002 10:06:31 PM |
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And then of course if this does happen, companies, such as Microsoft, with Windows, would have a hardware spec that you must meet in order for them to be liable.
There are so many different possible configurations of hardware out there, it is impossible to test it on all of it. Almost like saying Ford is liable if your SUV flips over when you do a sharp turn, even though all SUV's are known to be more likely to flip over than other vehicles. |
| #3 By 3339 (67.116.255.109) at 6/18/2002 11:00:35 AM |
| CPU, you point out the rason why Microsoft is the object of such a push. What freaking product these days can be sold without a "Designed for Microsoft Windows" emblem? MS is already dictacting inteoperability and the specs of much of the hardware and software in the PC ecosystem. If they can dictate what others need to be acceptable, the gov't should be able to say what is unacceptable. |
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