From: Mark Neely <accessnt@ozemail.com.au>
Date: Mon, 16 Oct 95 01:37:42 PDT
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: Netscape question transformed
Message-ID: <199510160837.SAA05368@oznet02.ozemail.com.au>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


Alice de 'nonymous wrote..

>> What would you
>> rather see?  A company makes a beta release for people to attempt to
>> break, fixes the bugs, and then releases a better product?  Or would
>> you rather see a company release a product, tell people it is secure,
>> and then get bitten by numerous holes in it?
>
>Well, I'm not sure that I'd want to make any representations or imply any
>warranties whatsoever. 

Ahhh.... this sort of thinking really lets the user down.

The reason Netscape (et. al) has market capitalisation is because they sell
their product to us, the users. It is a bit of a worry if software authors
can write and then release for sale "buggy" software, and hide safetly
behind "I make no warranties etc."

To adopt an analogy... would you be happy to buy a car from Toyota (or
whoever) if they were allowed to hide behind a warranty disclaiming
liability should it break down (or blow up)?

Somewhere along the lines, those who make their money selling software
should have to be responsible for bugs.

Thoughts?

Mark Neely



___
Mark Neely - accessnt@ozemail.com.au
Lawyer, Professional Cynic
Author: Australian Beginner's Guide to the Internet
Work-in-Progress: Australian Business Guide to the Internet
WWW: http://www.ozemail.com.au/~accessnt