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EC wants software makers held liable for code - ZDNet.co.uk

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EC wants software makers held liable for code - ZDNet.co.uk
Description
Software companies could be held responsible for the security and efficacy of their products, if a new European Commission consumer protection proposal becomes law.

Commissioners Viviane Reding and Meglena Kuneva have proposed that EU consumer protections for physical products be extended to software. The suggested change in the law is part of an EU action agenda put forward by the commissioners after identifying gaps in EU consumer protection rules.

A priority area for possible EU action is "extending the principles of consumer protection rules to cover licensing agreements of products like software downloaded for virus protection, games or other licensed content", according to the commissioners' agenda. "Licensing should guarantee consumers the same basic rights as when they purchase a good: the right to get a product that works with fair commercial conditions."

EU consumer commissioner Kuneva said that more accountability for software makers, and for companies providing digital services, would lead to greater consumer choice.
Original URL
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/software/0,1000000121,39649689,00.htm

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    • JDP JDP
      7 months ago


      You go EU! Well past time that software doesn't mean "you buy it and get whatever gunk we decide to give you" (regardless of hype and marketing). A "license" that says "you have no rights to expect anything except that we will take your money" has too long been a legal loophole for shoddy software products and worse (outright fraud).

      And guess what, until warrantability and safety became legal concerns of "tangible product makers", the same situation could be seen there. With the same "excuses" about being unable to predict a product's performance under common or unforeseen conditions / usage. That brought us "snake oil" and the like. Software is becoming (if it is not already) just as much a critical (sometimes life and death!) product as any other; so it is high time its makers "grow up" and take the appropriate responsibility for it!
      law & politics, Debunking Bunker, The Skeptic, techMix, Politics, Geopolitics, Law, Cyberlaw, *Changing America?, World News, The Radical Twine, Public Policy, Cool, Activism, Accountability, Technology Law, Twine News
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