On Fri, Aug 17, 2007 at 07:15:06PM +0100, Joe wrote: > > > >Pat wrote: > > > >> Whose responsibility is it, in the US if you manufacture a defective > >>product legally it is your responsibility if someone is harmed. > > > There's a bit of a difference between a defective product and one > incorrectly used. When a driver knocks down a pedestrian, should > the car manufacturer be the party that gets prosecuted?
Cars are a difficult example. Experience has shown that they are inherently dangerous in the hands of the driving population as a whole. People will die, by design. That's not a defective product, that's a dangerous product. The car industry knows this and spends money trying to mitigate the problem, and governments know this and regulate to try to mitigate the problem. Software failures *are* in the worst cases life threatening, and everyday non-safety-critical systems can easily be a very serious nuisiance to other users. Regards, Paddy -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
