Welcome to the MacNN Forums.

olePigeon · Jul 4, 2002, 04:10 AM

<a href="http://news.com.com/2100-1001-941549.html?tag=fd_top" target="_blank">http://news.com.com/2100-1001-941549.html?tag=fd_top</a>

<blockquote>quote:<hr />The focus on software maker liability for shoddy products has gained steam this year with a report released by the National Academy of Sciences recommending that federal lawmakers create legal guidelines to hold companies responsible for bugs in applications that affect security. <hr /></blockquote>Microsoft would be outa business in a week. Mwuhahaha! <img src="http://homepage.mac.com/olepigeon/opdevil.gif" alt=" - " />

Captain Big Trousers · Jul 4, 2002, 04:13 AM

I hear the MS lobby groups firing up, so it'll never happen.

olePigeon · Jul 4, 2002, 04:19 AM

Yeah, but we can hope. Of course their court testimony won't help them very much if by some miracle the law does pass. <img border="0" title="" alt="[Wink]" src="wink.gif" />

cdhostage · Jul 4, 2002, 11:06 AM

Requiring that software actually be CHECKED FOR BUGS i Like it

hushmail · Jul 4, 2002, 11:11 AM

Yes, let's hope this law gets passed. It will only mean the death of every commercial software company in the US.

Apple is welcome to move to Europe though <img border="0" title="" alt="[Wink]" src="wink.gif" />

olePigeon · Jul 4, 2002, 09:28 PM

<blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by hushmail:
Yes, let's hope this law gets passed. It will only mean the death of every commercial software company in the US.

Apple is welcome to move to Europe though <img border="0" title="" alt="[Wink]" src="wink.gif" /> <hr /></blockquote>It's only out of neglegence, like Microsoft. Apple doesn't write code with a million security holes then say,"Eh. Whatcha gonna do."

Millennium · Jul 4, 2002, 09:58 PM

<blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by hushmail:
Yes, let's hope this law gets passed. It will only mean the death of every commercial software company in the US.<hr /></blockquote>Not just commercial. Shareware and Open-Source as well. If a corporation can't handle the liability, then how will an individual?

hushmail · Jul 4, 2002, 10:42 PM

<blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by Millennium:
 <blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by hushmail:
Yes, let's hope this law gets passed. It will only mean the death of every commercial software company in the US.<hr /></blockquote>Not just commercial. Shareware and Open-Source as well. If a corporation can't handle the liability, then how will an individual?<hr /></blockquote>Yes, ofcourse. That somehow slipped my mind. Haven't had much sleep the last few days.
It's good to see that someone is awake to point that out

[ 07-04-2002, 11:44 PM: Message edited by: hushmail ]

MikeM32 · Jul 4, 2002, 11:38 PM

<blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by hushmail:
Yes, let's hope this law gets passed. It will only mean the death of every commercial software company in the US.<hr /></blockquote>I'm not sure how it would kill "every commercial software manufacturer in the US", but it certainly would kill those manufacturing software with high security risks and vulnerabilities <cough>MicrosoftWindows<cough>.

Other "bugs" in other kinds of software like Graphics applications (for example) aren't going to really effect security on such a grand scale or invite worms or viri to infect your whole system. I don't see companies like Adobe or Macromedia or Quark (for example) effected by any of this.

And while it would effect thier business in the short term should (if by some bizarre twist of fate) Microsoft go belly-up and Windows vanish off the face of the earth forever. Someone (hopefully more responsible) would step in with another more secure OS that would become the de-facto OS. Hopefully that'll be Apple and OSX, but even I admit that all of that is wishful thinking.

Besides according to that article, even though 80% of companies want immediate disclosure of software security flaws they're also saying they're not going to dump the problem software either. That's mainly because it costs a sh_tload of money to change say 1000 PC's running Windows and PC only software to Mac's running Mac software (for example). Add that to the cost of re-training people on <whatever> new platform and <whatever> new software, and it's not very appealing to the bean counters.

Mike

hushmail · Jul 5, 2002, 01:17 PM

<blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by MikeM32:
I'm not sure how it would kill "every commercial software manufacturer in the US", but it certainly would kill those manufacturing software with high security risks and vulnerabilities <cough>MicrosoftWindows<cough>.<hr /></blockquote>That depends entirely on the implementation of the law. However, I should have said "could mean the death" since nothing's decided yet

I don't understand why Americans could possibly want this. You usually don't want the government to babysit you. Why is this any different?

If one is stupid enough to use software that looks like swiss cheese you deserve everything heading your way.

However, I do agree that this law would be nice to have in order to wipe out Microsoft from the face of the planet

[ 07-05-2002, 02:18 PM: Message edited by: hushmail ]

BlackGriffen · Jul 5, 2002, 02:27 PM

<blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by hushmail:
 <blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by MikeM32:
I'm not sure how it would kill "every commercial software manufacturer in the US", but it certainly would kill those manufacturing software with high security risks and vulnerabilities <cough>MicrosoftWindows<cough>.<hr /></blockquote>That depends entirely on the implementation of the law. However, I should have said "could mean the death" since nothing's decided yet

I don't understand why Americans could possibly want this. You usually don't want the government to babysit you. Why is this any different?

If one is stupid enough to use software that looks like swiss cheese you deserve everything heading your way.

However, I do agree that this law would be nice to have in order to wipe out Microsoft from the face of the planet

<hr /></blockquote>It wouldn't be gov supervised if the software makers were civilly liable, and not criminally. That would just mean more lawsuits <img border="0" alt="[Hmmm]" title="" src="graemlins/hmmm.gif" /> .

A law like this may be devastating to shareware developers, but I have a hard time seeing it effect freeware devs. AFAIK, all freeware is offered "as is", and without any type of warranty. As long as the software was offered free of charge, and free of any kind of warrantee, I have a hard time seeing how someone could make a case unless there was specific malicious intent.

BlackGriffen

olePigeon · Jul 5, 2002, 02:32 PM

This law would effect corporations, not individuals. Shareware programmers and the such would be uneffected. Also, that's why we created the LLC. Microsoft is NOT an LLC, they're a corporation. They will be held accountable.

It's through neglegence, that's the key word. Corporations who have the resources and power to make viable products for the market but refuse to make a set of standards to follow. Corporations like Microsoft.

I think Apple, Oracle, Cisco, etc. would be largely unnefected as well. They have a reputation of security and quality (well, mostly Oracle and Cisco anyway on quality.)