Around 02:57pm on Sunday, November 19, 2006 (UK time), Alan Lake scrawled: > The solution to the spam problem is political. I have altered the subject to show this is off topic, as you should have done. Otherwise, you know, some people might regards it as spam. > these scourges are hosted and spread. I've never heard of any other > company's products doing so. So that must mean there can't be any. > is motivation. In America today, corporations seem to be motivated by > only one thing -- money. Not social responsibility, not good will, > certainly not the fear of God, but the prospect of making money or the > fear of losing money. What do you think should motivate corporations? > I believe that the laws of the United States that enable this company to > prosper, can also be used to protect those who are damaged because of > this company's irresponsible behavior. I imagine that the EULA of this > company has a clause or clauses in it that indemnifies it from any > damages caused by the design of its OS. Such clauses should not be > allowed to stand so that any company is able to make money while doing > things that cost others money, time or whatever. Of course lots of software, both open and closed source, has similar indemnifications. > Whether a change in the law is necessary or whether existing laws need > to be applied, I don't know. (What comes to mind is a class action > lawsuit.) But if there is political will, the United States can make it > unprofitable for this company to not fix it's software. If there was political will to do it, there would also be the economic will of customers to move away from such a company. > I did not mention the company I have in mind by name, because fairness > demands that such a change in or application of the law should apply to > all companies in this situation. The people who would be most at risk of such a change in law would be all those small developers who could not afford to fight or to risk losing such a suit agaisnt them. It would lay open every individual who contribututes to FNU, Linux or similar if they were to be help liable if there software was believed to have caused any damages to its users or other third parties. Steve -- A: Because it messes up the order in which people normally read text. Q: Why is top-posting a bad thing? 15:21:41 up 92 days, 17:48, 1 user, load average: 0.00, 0.00, 0.00
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