[LINK] Identity theft virus infects 10,000 computers

[Frank O'Connor]

At 5:26 PM +1000 on 15/8/06 Vic wrote:
>
>oh please. a quick look under google shows that negligence in software
>is a serious legal issue and a big insurance problem. I do have
>programers that develop software for 3rd parties who insist on software
>liability insurance and it is *not* cheap.

Yes it is an issue - but it has never been seriously tested. That is 
what the EULA's are about. (Well that and major software producers 
lobbying the government, trade bodies and the like to the effect that 
software is a 'special case'.)

As far as I know only government insists on same. It bumps up their 
contract prices, delights insurers and would probably prove 
unclaimable in the event the policy was executed on. But hey ... 
government contracts.

>
>>  plus the fact that microsoft etc have large teams of trained attack
>>  lawyers on staff.
>>
>>  success in court often has a lot more to do with how much money you can
>>  throw at your case than it has to do with the facts or with justice.
>
>truish to a degree. its more a case of how much money can assault your
>opponent with rather then sway the judge/jury. a lot of cases resolve
>outside of court because one side has run out of money.

Rather profound for you, Vic.

That's precisely what the litigation is about ... not justice, not 
impartiality, not even the administration of law. 99% of litigation 
is simply a balance of inconvenience. He who makes the litigation 
more inconvenient (expensive, drawn out, incurring little numbers 
like bad publicity and the like) WINS.

That said ... those 99% of cases don't result in any precedent that 
you could rely on for your other assertions because they occur in 
relatively low courts in the hierarchy, they rarely go to trial, they 
more often than not turn on the nuisance factor in the case (someone 
lodging a caveat, applying for a subpoena, an application for a 
remedy etc) rather than the substantive matters originally raised in 
the statement of claim on the summons or writ, or notice of defence.

						Regards,