Re: Password Security (more law)

[Valdis Kletnieks <Valdis.Kletnieks () VT EDU>]

On Thu, 25 Oct 2007 10:53:25 PDT, Steven Alexander said:
> Valdis said:
>       "Prior notice may matter because "they were *told* it was a Bad
> Idea  and they went ahead and intentionally did it *anyhow*" is the
> sort of       thing that changes regular everyday negligence into the
> sort that has         "reckless" and "egregious" attached to it, and then the
> punitive      damages come into play."

Damn.  At one point, I had "into the sort of behavior that has 'reckless..",
and 2 words disappeared into the bit bucket, leading to what's probably us
actually being in agreement... :)

> That's not how the law works.

You missed one point because of my mis-edit:  Before anybody told you it was a
bad idea, it's just negligence.  Once you *know* it's a bad idea, it's harder
to claim negligence for an intentional design feature - now it's *intentional*,
and all the adjectives come into play..

> You tell a clerk about the spill and it doesn't get cleaned up.  Five minutes
> later, someone slips on the milk.  The store had prior notice of the defect/
> condition and will probably be liable.

Of your milk examples, this is probably the closest fit to the situation under
discussion.  If anything, it's even worse - not mopping up milk is an error
of omission, going ahead and intentionally deploying something known bad is
an error of commission.

>  Punitive damages are awarded when the defendant does something bad, not
> stupid. They usually come into play when the defendant acts intentionally, acts
> in bad faith, attempts to cover up, etc.

Right - and most of the stuff I found by googling for "punitive" and
"reckless disregard" agreed with that. For instance,

http://www.groklaw.net/articlebasic.php?story=20070507094824404

  "Conduct is in reckless disregard of plaintiff's rights if, under the
  circumstances, it reflects complete indifference to the safety and rights of
  others."

At which point you're back in "punitive damages" territory.  Now - how
confident are you that the other side's lawyer won't be able to stretch it into
"You *knew* it was a Bad Idea, and you recklessly and intentionally did it
*anyhow*"? :)

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