Re: Microsot Liability for vulnerabilities

["James Lee Gromoll" <jgromoll () hotmail com>]

Kevin,

"a) create a new industry for lawyers
b) create a new industry for insurance companies (software malpractice
insurance)
c) motivate the software vendors to write better software
d) drive software prices way up to cover the extra costs of a, b, and c

I personally feel going to open source is a better way to go if you feel you
must make a statement, however that will not necessarily motivate the
commercial vendors to write higher quality software.  They may be just as
likely to think that they need to put in more bells and whistles."

Ditto. Excellent points. I also beleive that eventually this will be driven 
to open source. One thing to note in these cases it is not the "reasonable 
doubt" but the "preponderance of the evidence" principal that applies. In 
any case your points are well taken.

MODERATOR>>>>>>This might start another thread.

The open source movement and the entire GPL licensing principal is under 
attack from an old Micro$oft arm. Here's how it goes. I own rights to some 
source code. Let's say I see to it that the code is integrated into a GPL 
product, oh let's say the Linux kernal, but I didn't put it therel. Oh, gee 
my rights to my source have been violated. I want $$$$$. I'll sue who? The 
distributers of the code? Nope. The person who put the code into the open 
source community? (that's who I think these clowns should be going after 
since it probably was thierown selves.) Nope. The folks who are running my 
proprietary code? Hell yeah. Make 'em pay. Just it case you thought 
Micro$oft might try to make Linux its own, your worst fears are in route. 
Currently a Caldera company Santa Cruz Operations was (may still effectively 
be) Micro$oft and they have executed the exact ploy above. So they want to 
"own" Linux 2.4+ kernals and be paid for every installation. Really want to 
know more go to these links......

http://informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=12801004

http://www.vnunet.com/News/1141848

http://ir.sco.com/EdgarDetail.cfm?CompanyID=CALD&CIK=1102542&FID=1047469-03-23599&SID=03-00

just $.02 worth

_________________________________________________________________
The new MSN 8: smart spam protection and 2 months FREE*  
http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail


---------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------------