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 be  vs. 
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