The Internet Virus--Another issue

[John B. Nagle]

In article <7715 at boring.cwi.nl> jack at cwi.nl (Jack Jansen) writes:
>
>When a serious defect in a car is found the manufacturer usually calls
>all cars with the defect back and repairs them for free.

      Federal law requires this.  Under heavy pressure from Ralph Nader,
Congress, during the 1960s, required mandatory recalls for safety-related
defects and for certain other problems.  The manufacturers often initiate
"voluntary" recalls as well, but this is to head off action by the Department
of Transportation.  Interestingly, the manufacturers are not required to
inform vehicle owners of the recall; they can let the Government do that.
However, if the manufacturer lets DOT send out the notice, it will, as
required by the law, contain rather negative language (along the lines
of "The United States Government Department of Transportation has
determined that a serious safety defect exists in your car..."), so
manufacturers usually prefer to inform customers themselves.

      The day may come when we see such legislation for computers.

      
					John Nagle