Re: product liability (was 'we should all be uncomfortable with the extent to which luck..')

[Owen DeLong <owen () delong sj ca us>]

I don't know about IBM or EDS, but in both of those cases, only a
portion
of ATC has failed, and there were backup plans in place to deal with
such
failures.  I do not believe there has been a test case here, as yet. 
You
can bet your ass they'd get sued if two planes collided during an outage
and the collision was attributed in part to the failure of their
system(s).

As to Jepessen, you obviously don't remember the lawsuit filed over the
737
crash that took out Commerce Secretary Ron Brown.  Jepessen was sued
over
that crash, even though their charts were within specifications and
correct
according to the available definitions of correct.

It is rare that a Jepessen chart error leads to a crash, but it is
almost
uheard of for them to not get sued in the event of a crash that might
possibly be blamed on a chart error.

Owen

Chance Whaley wrote:
> Funny..
>
> I don't remember IBM or EDS being sued on the times when ATC has failed.
> Jeppeson hasn't been sued for issuing incorrect maps either. Software
> programmers arent sued when monitoring machines in hospitals fail. Oh
> that's right, because there are neat things called "Limits of
> Liability", "Gross Negligence", and "Malicious Intent".
>
> Look up the work indemnity. There is a reason why it is in most
> boilerplate. In the mean time, I would suggest that people who have no
> concept of the legal system refrain from comment about any of this. The
> concept of this entire thread is nothing more than mental masturbation.
>
> .chance
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: owner-nanog () merit edu [mailto:owner-nanog () merit edu]On Behalf Of
> > Gary E. Miller
> > Sent: Wednesday, July 25, 2001 3:57 PM
> > To: Joseph T. Klein
> > Cc: nanog () nanog org
> > Subject: Re: product liability (was 'we should all be
> > uncomfortable with
> > the extent to which luck..')
> >
> >
> >
> > Yo Joseph!
> >
> > On Wed, 25 Jul 2001, Joseph T. Klein wrote:
> >
> > > Since software, in theory, can't cause physical danger, I suspect
> > > the shrink wrap license makes Microsoft immune to any liability.
> >
> > ROTFL!  What about the WinNT powered flight control systems from
> > Avidyne?  NT blue screens when you are in the clouds and death is
> > usually shortly follow.  Shrink wrap license or not, the first time
> > this happens expect M$ to show up in court.
> >
> > RGDS
> > GARY
> > --------------------------------------------------------------
> > -------------
> > Gary E. Miller Rellim 20340 Empire Ave, Suite E-3, Bend, OR 97701
> >       gem () rellim com  Tel:+1(541)382-8588 Fax: +1(541)382-8676

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