On software liability laws

I came across this interesting opinion on software liability.  Just to keep them here for the context, the suggested software liability rules include the following:

  1. Consult criminal code to see if any intentionally caused damage is already covered.
  2. If you deliver software with complete and buildable source code and a license that allows disabling any functionality or code by the licensee, then your liability is limited to a refund.
  3. In any other case, you are liable for whatever damage your software causes when used normally.

Which sounds reasonable from the position of “let’s sort the security issues”.  Even though I’m not a big believer in legal system when it comes to technology issues.  But then, there is this:

The software houses would yell bloody murder if any legislator were to introduce a bill proposing these stipulations

with which I personally disagree.  I think software houses that do quality work wouldn’t mind at all.  The people who would mind are the clients of software houses.  Quality always comes at a cost.  And raising quality of software immediately means rising the cost of software.  And the majority of clients (in my experience) don’t care about quality to the point where they would pay for it.  And there are plenty of examples in other industries – food, automobile, furniture, clothes, etc.

Basically, this all just reiterates my points of security and privacy are mythical and/or dead.  Mostly, because most people don’t care enough.

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