Re: [AP] David L. Smith arrested for writing Melissa

Dave Long (dl@silcom.com)
Wed, 07 Apr 1999 00:12:14 -0700


> While I wouldn't defend anyone who created a virus, isn't there
> SOME responsibility to be shared by those who release, deploy,
> support, and promote software with obvious and well-known security
> holes?

Not if they can get their software license terms upheld.

Theodore Roosevelt[1] curmudgeons:

> But, doubtless chiefly through my own fault, some of the teaching of the law
> books and of the classroom seemed to me to be against justice. The caveat
> emptor side of the law, like the caveat emptor side of business, seemed to me
> repellent; it did not make for social fair dealing. The "let the buyer beware"
> maxim, when translated into actual practice, whether in law or business, tends
> to translate itself further into the seller making his profit at the expense
> of the buyer, instead of by a bargain which shall be to the profit of both.
> It did not seem to me that the law was framed to discourage as it should
> sharp practice...

-Dave

[1] http://www.bartleby.com/55/3.html