Internet Virus: SunOS patches
Noel Bell
chcu275 at ut-emx.UUCP
Tue Nov 15 10:34:33 AEST 1988
In article <12592 at steinmetz.ge.com>, davidsen at steinmetz.ge.com (William E. Davidsen Jr) writes:
> In article <580 at micropen> dave at micropen (David F. Carlson) writes:
>
> | ... But we must have responsible vendors ....
>
> I wonder if there is some legal obligation to fix known bugs in a
> piece of software you sell? Obviously if vendors were held responsible
> for unknown bugs, there would be no one selling software, or the price
> would be totally out of reach. But is there an obligation to fix a bug
> if you know about it?
> --
> bill davidsen (wedu at ge-crd.arpa)
Not being a lawyer and not wanting to be one, I will add a 2nd hand
legal-type data point to the discussion anyway.
A professor here at UT-Austin worked with a large chemical company
to develop a process control algorithm. Software developed by the
professor ( read grad. student ) was installed on a test system and
will be installed on a full scale production unit soon.
This process unit has *exploded* at least once while being operated
with the old control system ( if it could be called that ).
The professor had a legal document prepared and signed by the
necessary big shots which released him from any responsibility for
the results of implementation of the software *except in the case
of gross negligence*.
In this chemical case, I would consider failure to fix a known and
documented bug or potentially harmful feature to be gross negligence.
Even in the absence of said legal document, I would think that gross
negligence would result in a civil suit if not a criminal charge.
( Note: I am not advocating such a suit; but I would expect one in
such circumstances )
Noel Bell
Department of Chemical Engineering
University of Texas at Austin
chcu275 at ut-emx
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