Don’t Sue Programmers
Interesting article on Wired proposing an economic model for secure software… Some jackass had said that we should make coders liable for security holes and open them up for lawsuit by users. The Wired article says make the company liable.
Ever actually read a EULA? The company isn’t liable for anything that happens to you because of the software, nothing, not a penny… and the software doesn’t belong to you anyway and usually can be removed from your leaseship with a word from the manufacturing company. Time to end all that.
Or is it? Can you imagine the class-action lawsuit against Microsoft for, say, the Slammer worm? Would the result of that lawsuit put Microsoft out of business? Where would that leave all of that shareholder money dumped into R&D? Do the benefits of accountability really justify the near-certainty litigiousness in the early 21st century United States?
I’m up for it and think we should not only try this but use some of that legal momentum to re-examine the standard EULA, too. By all means, don’t make the coders liable or you’ll just have really fast turnover on programmers and no real change in the status quo. If the companies were liable for the products they produce (what a concept) then they might start taking user needs seriously.