I certainly hope that that lawsuit went nowhere. It would set a very dangerous precedent. If a gun maker were to be held liable for murders and accidents involving their product, where would it end?
Would Anheuser-Busch and Ford be defendants along with the drunk driver?
And you're right. It's the populace that is to blame. The legal maneuverings are, after all, intended to benefit the public (or am I totally naive, and it's all the lawyer's fault?). The idea that someone would have the stones to sue MacDonalds for having doused their own crotch with scaling coffee, is ludicrous. These people should not only be laughed out of court, they should (as per British rules) be made to refund the cost of frivilous lawsuit. Further, they should be kept from breeding more idiots.
However, there is some strength to the argument that M$ is at fault, at least in part. Tech-minded people have known for a long time, that M$ Office is swiss cheese, security-wise. This has been said elsewhere in this forum numerous times. M$, IMHO, has shirked the responsibility of keeping the PAYING public informed about the shortcomings of their product. Mind you, they are not obligated to fix it, it is their product to develop as they will. But, they have the moral obligation (uh-oh! How objective can THAT be?) to keep their customers aware.
Here Ford has them beat hands down. If something more than nominal rust appears on a tranny-mount, they issue a recall and have it replaced free of charge. (Just got a notice regarding my father's Lincoln) And you can't argue cost, since M$ is making money hand over fist, and their production costs for a patch are nil.
What the software industry needs is a vocal watchdog organization to point and yell each time the emperor streaks the town square. Maybe some of the primus mobilae of OSS could knock heads together and propose a Software Underwriters Association?
Suing manufacturers (Score:1)
Would Anheuser-Busch and Ford be defendants along with the drunk driver?
And you're right. It's the populace that is to blame. The legal maneuverings are, after all, intended to benefit the public (or am I totally naive, and it's all the lawyer's fault?). The idea that someone would have the stones to sue MacDonalds for having doused their own crotch with scaling coffee, is ludicrous. These people should not only be laughed out of court, they should (as per British rules) be made to refund the cost of frivilous lawsuit. Further, they should be kept from breeding more idiots.
However, there is some strength to the argument that M$ is at fault, at least in part. Tech-minded people have known for a long time, that M$ Office is swiss cheese, security-wise. This has been said elsewhere in this forum numerous times. M$, IMHO, has shirked the responsibility of keeping the PAYING public informed about the shortcomings of their product. Mind you, they are not obligated to fix it, it is their product to develop as they will. But, they have the moral obligation (uh-oh! How objective can THAT be?) to keep their customers aware.
Here Ford has them beat hands down. If something more than nominal rust appears on a tranny-mount, they issue a recall and have it replaced free of charge. (Just got a notice regarding my father's Lincoln) And you can't argue cost, since M$ is making money hand over fist, and their production costs for a patch are nil.
What the software industry needs is a vocal watchdog organization to point and yell each time the emperor streaks the town square. Maybe some of the primus mobilae of OSS could knock heads together and propose a Software Underwriters Association?