Software Design Software Companies Should NOT Be Held Responsible for Damages Due to Buggy Software
What areof‘Damages? ’ n Importance differentiating between Physical Damages and Monetary Damages vs.
Complexity of Code and the Software Environment n n Mars Pathfinder = $150, 000 and 150, 000 lines of code Microsoft Word = 2, 000 lines of code “Quite often, software systems are assembled using multiple components, which may have been developed by different groups of people, perhaps in different organizations, using different development and testing methodologies. ” Software does not exist in a vacuum – Microsoft liable for the failure of an Epson printer driver?
Idealistic But Not Realistic n n “It’s probably currently impossible to build perfect programs, to guarantee that a given piece of software has no defects at all. ” – Mark Minasi, author of Why Software Companies Put Out Faulty Products, How They Can Hurt You, and What You Can Do About It “It is just impracticable to design or test for everything. ” – Bruce Schneier, author of Secrets and Lies: Digital Security in a Networked World 64 percent of software developers are not confident that they can write secure applications If it’s impossible to make error-free software, what is the point of liability legislation?
Negative Economic Impact n “It could cost 50 to 100 percent more in an application [to build in reliability]. ” –CA Executive ¨ Who will pay? YOU will pay n Implications for the Digital Divide? Education? The Economy? n
Adverse Effect on the Software Environment n n Effect on YOU: Estimated extra year to shift products to market Effect on Programmers: “You’d have a lot of trouble finding people to work on it. What attracts capable people is the new stuff, the exciting stuff. ” – Microsoft Executive ¨ Fewer programmers ¨ Fewer small companies willing to take risks
Legal Backing Licenses, not Products n EULA n n n Pro. CD, Inc. v. Zeidenberg, Microsoft v. Harmony Computers, Novell v. Network Trade Center, and Arizona Cartridge Remanufacturers Association Inc. v. Lexmark International Inc AOL liable for cost of lost data? ¨ Ruling: “The court held that damage to physical, hardware components of the computer is covered by insurance policy under ‘physical damage to tangible property, ’ but loss of instructions, data, and stored information is not. ”
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