Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!uwvax!oddjob!ncar!ames!ucsd!ucsdhub!hp-sdd!hplabs!pyramid!octopus!pete From: pete@octopus.UUCP (Pete Holzmann) Newsgroups: news.admin Subject: Re: Malicious posting worries and lawsuits Summary: A better comparison would bevs. Message-ID: <276@octopus.UUCP> Date: 3 Jul 88 00:24:16 GMT References: <266@octopus.UUCP> <3331@s.cc.purdue.edu> <272@octopus.UUCP> <3333@s.cc.purdue.edu> <274@octopus.UUCP> <11591@agate.BERKELEY.EDU> Reply-To: pete@octopus.UUCP (Pete Holzmann) Organization: Octopus Enterprises, Cupertino CA Lines: 38 Okay, I'm convinced that comparing worries about net-flames and worries about viruses isn't particularly valid. When thinking about lawsuits, et al, I think a *good* comparison is to compare the following: 1) Someone posts a malicious program that causes actual damage to a net-user's system. 2) Someone posts a program (source code even) containing a serious bug that causes actual damage to a net-user's system. An interesting reference is to be found in a recent RISKS digest concerning this. [Quoting from memory now; I probably have some details wrong, but the essence is correct.] A database error in one part of a major travel-agents' database system caused the system to fail. The error was propogated throughout the network and caused major outages all over the place. This problem was viewed as a 'virus'. Obviously, it is not what we would technically call a virus. But the public is quickly moving towards a view that any spreading computer-related problem is a 'virus'. Thus, both of the cases I cited above could reasonably seen as 'viruses' by a jury. Clearly, there is more liability on the part of the malicious originator than on the part of the person who 'innocently' posted a buggy program. But that doesn't matter to the rest of us. For the rest of the net, who simply passed along both programs without finding the problems, the cases are exceedingly similar! We would have been a party to the passing along of a program that caused damage to a user's system. Conclusion: If you want to worry about legal hassles from passing binaries along, you ought to also worry about buggy programs of all kinds. Pete -- OOO __| ___ Peter Holzmann, Octopus Enterprises OOOOOOO___/ _______ USPS: 19611 La Mar Court, Cupertino, CA 95014 OOOOO \___/ UUCP: {hpda,pyramid}!octopus!pete ___| \_____ Phone: 408/996-7746