jdow wrote:
And the first time a Fedora Core release is hacked Red Hat goes out of
business. Is this your goal? (Mind you, there are days when I have
uttered enough unkind words Fedora-wards that I'd applaud the concept.
Note, there are not as many such days as there are days I've felt the
urge to disembowel somebody on the Microsoft campus - which would be
too kind for some of them such as the doofus who invented "Clippy.")
{^_-}
I tend to think that if Red Hat is selling a distribution; then yes,
they are liable just like Microsoft would be. If they are just selling
support for a free distribution; then no, they would not be liable for
anything they did not service. The end user should be liable for the
software their machine is running unless it can be proven to be a
problem which they could not be reasonably expected to know about.
For instance, using the popular car analogy: if I buy a car from Ford
and I keep it in the stock condition, then they are responsible for it
working as it should. If I do not maintain it properly, then I can be
held partially or fully responsible for an accident resulting from a
problem with the vehicle. The court would have to assign the percentage
of blame depending on how well I maintained the vehicle and if it had
anything to do with the accident.
However, if I modify the car from stock; then I become responsible
for the modifications if they contribute to an accident. If I bought a
kit, then I can also get the court to assign blame fully or a percentage
depending on if I correctly followed the installation instructions.
If I buy a Windows product and leave it totally stock, then I cannot
be held responsible for problems with it. If Microsoft notifies me of a
problem with the software and I ignore it, then I can be held partially
or fully responsible (depending on what the court finds). If I install
other software on the computer, then I assume responsibility unless I
can show that the third-party was negligent in troubleshooting the
software. Under those circumstances they can be assigned partial or full
blame in the matter (depending on their user agreement).
If I get a Linux distribution for free and agree to a user agreement
which states that I am fully responsible for anything bad happening to
the computer, then I should be held responsible for any problems it
could create. If I do not want that responsibility, then I should not
install the software and just stick with a stock Microsoft (or other
vendor's) product.
Just my thoughts. They could be subject to revision should a good
argument present itself. :-)
Patrick
