On Sat, Jan 25, 2003 at 08:56:06AM -0800, Bill Woodcock wrote:
> > Dunno, arent they negligent? > > In any other industry a fundemental flaw would be met with lawsuits, in the > > computer world tho people seem to get around for some reason. > > Not true, look at cars and recalls. Also as I understand it MS > issued a fix for this sometime ago - it the users who didn't implement it!
Uh, lemme see if I get your argument. People who buy exploding cars from Vendor M are at fault when the cars explode, since cars from Vendor M always explode, and Vendor M always disclaims responsibility, since someone usually points out in advance that the cars will explode?
I'm not sure that your argument has anything to do with the law or with right and wrong, but in a sort of social-Darwinism sort of way, I guess I'd agree with it. Except the herds of losers who still buy exploding crap from Vendor M don't seem to be thinning themselves out quickly enough. Maybe they're sexually attractive to each other, and reproduce before their stupidity kills them. That would be unfortunate. Or maybe it's just that none of this computer stuff actually matters, so exploding crap isn't actually fatal. Maybe that's it.
Time for someone to fight the product liability included in the 'shrinkwrap' licenses. I do believe that there should be some sort of inital grace period for the software industry.. they are well intentioned and not as old as the car industry.. but the dire affects and lost sleep for some people need to eventually be reckoned with. The grace period should probally be over now and the industry declared 'mature and liable' for shoddy software. If my car has a recall notice, i get a letter saying "dear sir, your gas tank may explode if used. please come in for our inspection". If they can keep track of those millions of cars each year, at least somewhat, it should be simple to track who purchased the software and send them a letter saying "get these patches now.." or perhaps they can do some agrement with AOL to include all the latest patches in those CDs^H^H^HCoasters they send me. - Jared -- Jared Mauch | pgp key available via finger from jared@puck.nether.net clue++; | http://puck.nether.net/~jared/ My statements are only mine.