LBolton@geiger.com wrote:

Your analogy is flawed.

The question is, should Firestone be responsible for someone going around slashing the tires? No they shouldn't. No, but they should be held accountable for not making a product that will last as long as expected (warrented) or that acts in a manner that causes harm to a user who is not abusing the product (constantly blowing out at speeds considered "normal" like 65).

Then why should Microsoft or any other software manufacturer be responsible for the damage done by third parties? Why not? 3rd parties (script kiddies) are no different than rocks on the road: They are there; you can't get rid of them; they cause damage; and products should be made with them in mind...

You could make the argument that Microsoft should have designed more security into their products to prevent security breaches of this nature, but you could also argue that Firestone should make their tires out of kevlar to prevent people from slashing them. Firestone (and most all other) tires *are* made with kevlar to give them puncture resistance... They and other manufactures want to make tires that will last x amount of miles or time on the road. They provide treadwear ratings so you can compair against other makes and models. And there are a jillion different tire makers out there that make products of compairable quality that all can work with each other as well so you don't have to buy 5 tires of the same make/model... And there is a standard system for fitting tires onto rims.

We shouldn't hold the software manufacturers responsible, unless they willingly and knowingly left the security flaw in place. We should hold the programmers that release malicious code responsible. If Microsoft (and other OS makers) had the same quality standards as tire makers, we would see up-times of 3 to 10 years. (Or however long it takes to use a computer to the equivilant amount of putting 100000 miles on a tire...)

Oh, wait--VMS and UNIX boxes have already been known to stay up for that long... =) Should people sue all makers of screw, nails, and other puncturing devices for selling things that can screw up tires? /herb