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North American Network Operators Group Date Prev | Date Next | Date Index | Thread Index | Author Index | Historical Re: product liability (was 'we should all be uncomfortable with the extent...
[email protected] wrote: > Your analogy is flawed. > > The question is, should Firestone be responsible for someone going around > slashing the tires? No they shouldn't. No, but they should be held accountable for not making a product that will last as long as expected (warrented) or that acts in a manner that causes harm to a user who is not abusing the product (constantly blowing out at speeds considered "normal" like 65). > Then why should Microsoft or any other software manufacturer be responsible > for the damage done by third parties? Why not? 3rd parties (script kiddies) are no different than rocks on the road: They are there; you can't get rid of them; they cause damage; and products should be made with them in mind... > You could make the argument that Microsoft should have designed more > security into their products to prevent security breaches of this nature, > but you could also argue that Firestone should make their tires out of > kevlar to prevent people from slashing them. Firestone (and most all other) tires *are* made with kevlar to give them puncture resistance... They and other manufactures want to make tires that will last x amount of miles or time on the road. They provide treadwear ratings so you can compair against other makes and models. And there are a jillion different tire makers out there that make products of compairable quality that all can work with each other as well so you don't have to buy 5 tires of the same make/model... And there is a standard system for fitting tires onto rims. > We shouldn't hold the software manufacturers responsible, unless they > willingly and knowingly left the security flaw in place. We should hold > the programmers that release malicious code responsible. If Microsoft (and other OS makers) had the same quality standards as tire makers, we would see up-times of 3 to 10 years. (Or however long it takes to use a computer to the equivilant amount of putting 100000 miles on a tire...) Oh, wait--VMS and UNIX boxes have already been known to stay up for that long... =) Should people sue all makers of screw, nails, and other puncturing devices for selling things that can screw up tires? /herb |