Software Liability
from the what-would-it-mean dept
I've been hearing more and more people talk recently about whether or not software makers should be held liable for defects and bugs in their code. Thanks to the current license agreements, most software companies basically force any user to sign (or, rather, click) away their liability rights to any product. However, lately there's been a bigger groundswell to change the laws to make it easier to get back at companies that produce awful software. Another article talks about what the impact of such a legal change would be on Microsoft who would probably be the main target of every lawyer looking to get their hands on the many billions of Microsoft cash. However, I still wonder if the bigger impact wouldn't be on small software shops, one-person shareware programs, and open source projects - who would suddenly have to deal with the liability costs themselves.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
