Products Liability and Innovation. Was: ...

[Trei, Peter]

> Black Unicorn[SMTP:unicorn at schloss.li]
> 
> From: "Eugene Leitl" <Eugene.Leitl at lrz.uni-muenchen.de>
> 
> > On Mon, 13 Aug 2001, Trei, Peter wrote:
> >
> > > I hate to say this, but until software developers are held (at least
> > > at the corporate level) in some way liable for their failures, there
> > > will be little or no improvement in the situation.
> >
> > I think this is the wrong approach to the situation. Making people
> liable
> > stifles innovation.
> 
> I think 30+ years of active products liability jurisprudence might
> disagree
> with you.  Just in the automotive world and off the top of my head:
> Automatic
> Breaking Systems, designed failure points (crumple zones), 6mph bumpers,
> "safety glass," shoulder belts, passive belts, air bags and a host of
> other
> technologies or innovations that may or may not have been developed "but
> for"
> litigation are most probably the result of strict liability in products
> liability cases.  The effect is to make safety profitable- or more
> accurately,
> to make unsafety unprofitable.  See generally Posner, Hallman and the
> "Chicago
> School of Law and Economics," an entire movement in legal thought centered
> on
> the idea that you are very wrong about the effect of liability on
> innovation.
> 
> Now less I be misinterpreted, misworded, misquoted and misunderstood by
> the
> various misanthropic types here:
> 
> Do I think that software should have products liability attached to it?
> No.
> Do I think strict liability stifles innovation?  No.
> 
[I hate to post something that makes it look as if I'm doing further 
BU bashing (which is not my intention), but:...]

When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. There are
other groups which can apply pressure than lawyers, courts and Men
with Guns.  Auditors and insurance companies come to mind. Schneier 
has noted how improvements in safe (as in a secure metal box)
technology was driven not by losses, not by customers, nor by lawsuits,
but rather by insurance requirements.

'You're running your ecommerce site on IIS? Ok, that's 10% extra on your
premiums." (This is already starting to happen).

Peter Trei