Comment Anything Not to Take Responsibility (Score 1) 200
When will the hacker (re: "Open Source") community learn to take responsibility for their programs? First they want to claim that they can make better software because of the supposed benefits that Open Source gives them, but then their self-proclaimed spokesman, Richard Stallman, turns around and says:
"We generally believe that big companies ought to be held to a strict standard of liability to their customers, because they can afford it and because it will keep them honest. On the other hand, individuals, amateurs, and good samaritans should be treated more favorably."
Software is software, no matter who writes it. Trying to judge the status of the programmer as a determinant of liability is absurd ("Let's see. He is self trained, but he didn't charge very much for the software. So I guess he isn't liable. Oh, but he has a business license! But he's the only employee. Does that make him and individual or a company?").
The Open Source community needs to grow up and stop living in the world of perpetual beta. If you're writing software, you better make damn sure you're not screwing up someone in the process. You are liable, even when you do things for free. The road to Hell is paved with good intentions.
Hopefully this legislation will pass and the Open Source community will have to face up to the real world of developing software, not the fantasy land they currently live in.
"We generally believe that big companies ought to be held to a strict standard of liability to their customers, because they can afford it and because it will keep them honest. On the other hand, individuals, amateurs, and good samaritans should be treated more favorably."
Software is software, no matter who writes it. Trying to judge the status of the programmer as a determinant of liability is absurd ("Let's see. He is self trained, but he didn't charge very much for the software. So I guess he isn't liable. Oh, but he has a business license! But he's the only employee. Does that make him and individual or a company?").
The Open Source community needs to grow up and stop living in the world of perpetual beta. If you're writing software, you better make damn sure you're not screwing up someone in the process. You are liable, even when you do things for free. The road to Hell is paved with good intentions.
Hopefully this legislation will pass and the Open Source community will have to face up to the real world of developing software, not the fantasy land they currently live in.
