[LINK] Code Red puts Microsoft in hot seat

[Rick Welykochy]

On Mon, 6 Aug 2001, Bernard Robertson-Dunn contributed:

> Code Red puts Microsoft in hot seat 
> By Dan Verton 
> 6 August, 2001 8:37
> Washington, U.S.

[SNIPPE]

> "People have every right to expect reliable, secure software," said Jay
> Nickson, a security trainer at Ronin Software Group in West Chesterfield,
> N.H. He added that developers should be responsible if errors in their
> software result in lost profits, lost hours or bodily harm. He even
> suggested that it might be time for a "software users' bill of rights."
> 
> But Alan Paller, director of the SANS Institute, a security research
> organization in Bethesda, Md., said that's a long shot. A routine check of
> the terms of the agreement included with every shrink-wrapped package of
> software from Microsoft and other developers would show that users "have no
> rights at all," he said.

I would have thought that user's rights are covered by expectations of
suitability of purpose as enshrined in consumer rights legislation, not
by a shrink-wrapped licence the consumer cannot read before purchasing
a product. It is a conflict of interest for the software supplier
to dictate the rights of the purchaser.


-rickw



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Rick Welykochy || Praxis Services Pty Limited

"Those who do not understand Unix are condemned to reinvent it, poorly."
       - Henry Spencer