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Cem Kaner's Bill of Rights
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posted by mpawlo
on Sunday August 31, @06:35AM
from the software-bill-of-rights dept.
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Cem Kaner has introduced a suggestion for a software purchaser's bill of rights. In ten short bulletpoints Kaner presents a case for a more consumer-friendly software vendorship. Kaner's position makes sense with one excemption. Kaner's second right ("disclose known defects") is dangerously close to a lemon law for software. What is a 'known defect'? Software is not a car. I have dealt with the issue in a short opinion piece published by Newsforge. With strict liability the prices for products will increase while the developer need to get an expensive insurance and substantially prolong the beta test period to find any possible bug. Hence, fewer and more expensive computer programs may reach the market. The lemon law case for computer programs is more complex than lemon laws for cars. Computer programs may be run a wide range of platforms and for uses that can not be predicted by the developer.
Computer programs are not material goods and can not be dealt with in the same way consumer advocates wants the legislator to deal with cars, electric appliances and toys. Computer programs are developed incrementally and the users are always used as dummies. Bugs are eventually corrected when the users discover them. If the computer programs are to be as foolproof as cars before they are released we need a lot of the IT equivalent of crash test dummies. And the next Linux will probably never be released.
Read Cem Kaner's Bill of Rights.
Read my Newsforge piece, Lemon law with bitter taste.
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