If you buy hardware and it turns out to be a dud you have a number of avenues open to you for redress. The same is not true for software.

Technology analyst Bill Thompson  thinks it is time for software vendors to accept their liability.

I agree - the idea that you accept a software license by installing a software package and that by accepting the license you accept it "'as is' with all faults" sounds a lot to me like "heads I win, tails you lose". Yes, it would bring liability to the software world and corporations and open source projects would have to come to terms with this (some companies are bound to be adversly affected - but that wold only be because of serious software issues causing a flood of liability claims). In the face of constant security vulnerabilities that liability is what's needed to give companies the motivation they need to tighten up security, fix bugs and give YOU, the user, the respect you deserve. The tools that we currently use for business and leisure on out PC have been developed and released with no vendor liability - we can see where that's taken us. It's time for things to change.

This entry was posted by the PC Doctor on Friday, September 30th, 2005 at 16:47 and is filed under PC Doctor's Thoughts, In the News. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.