On 21 Aug 1997 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > Bruce writes: > > However there are negligence scenarios, for example a maintainer who > > accepts a patch without realizing that it contains a trojan-horse > > program. I want to shield our developers from individual liability in > > that sort of case. > > Is every maintainer an employee or agent of SPI, then? Or is SPI going to > purchase liability insurance and name all the maintainers as beneficiaries? > > I don't really think there is much risk, though. Where's the duty? > > Has there ever actually been a negligence suit over free software?
If it was free you couldn't sue for a refund. I really think you could only sue a party that intentionally and maliciously damaged you. That would require a serious effort to instill a false sense of trust in the software. Microsoft did this to me with a database product called Access. I should have sued them for my $99 plus damages. Yeah, fat chance. A smaller entity like SPI is much more likely to be sued than a rich fascist company like u-no-hoo. It would be a nuisance suit, but SPI doesn't have a legal department with full-time attorneys to quickly dispose of such things. Anybody who is breathing US air these days is a potential victim of unwarranted, frivilous legal actions. Paranoia helps the insurance companies sell policies. Highly insured defendants means more of the money awarded by courts is actually collectible. This increases the paranoia and more insurance is purchased. There are 2 things which are getting to be worse than any tax: insurance premiums and the percentage that merchants pay on every credit card sale. +----------------------------------------------------------------------+ + Paul Wade Greenbush Technologies Corporation + + mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.greenbush.com/ + +----------------------------------------------------------------------+ + http://www.greenbush.com/cds.html Now shipping version 1.3.? + +----------------------------------------------------------------------+ -- TO UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THIS MAILING LIST: e-mail the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED] . Trouble? e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] .
