Software Liability Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Softw ar obligation - Essay ExampleWe need to know more about packet liability and know who should be held conceivable. Issues It is therefore helpful to know what should be protected to be able to make sure that bundle users are sheltered unintended consequences for any malfunction. Every piece of bundle comes will a manifest agreement which strips off the creator for any liability that may result using their point of intersection (Tompkins, 2000). We can non estimable let the companies sell their products and then by just a click of the license agreement, the programmers are not liable anymore. What if the software is used in medical fields where lives are at risk? What protection should be provided for the end users? Do we have existing protection for the software users? Are the creators, programmers, owners protected to a fault? Discussion Software users should therefore be protected with the press that they had agreed with the providers, developers or programmers. Eac h software user enters into a foreshorten or license agreement with the providers believing that all the statements regarding the product they precious to buy or use are true. Thus, any defects and malfunctions of each product or software should be given utmost attention and reparation. According to Kaner (1997), there are a lot of theories which a software consumer is protected and software developer can be sued. The software developer or programmer can be held liable for criminal act and intentional tort, which includes intentional tampering of the consumers computer or loading viruses (Kaner, 1997). A consumer can in like manner sue for strict liability and negligence which a defective product caused harm and damage to the consumer since each company has duty to take reasonable measures to make the product safe (Kaner, 1997). Kaner (1997) also included fraud, negligent misrepresentation, unfair deceptive trade practice, unfair competition, and FTC enforcement to cover for misr epresentation of product and some other fraudulent and deceptive acts of the programmers regarding the software. Lastly, a programmer or company can be sued for breach of contract when in each software transaction, a user and a provider engages in a contract which gives obligation to each other (Kaner, 1997). These protections should not be expanded anymore. Venters (2007) stated that we also need to pack the types of failures that happen. As he explained, there is a big difference between intentional failure and accidental failure (Venters, 2007). Even if we say that consumers can greatly be affected by the malfunctions or defects of the product, we must(prenominal) also consider that the providers such as programmers or developers also did their best to provide the best product with good intention. The software producers, programmers, developers and owners are also protected. The scope of protection and likelihood of enforcement of protection varies by unpolished (Internationa l Legal Protection for Software, n.d.). They are protected by Trade Act and other intellectual blank space and copyright laws in several countries. They are also protected by the license agreement that the consumers or users and providers agreed into. Every time the users agree into license agreement, they are agreeing to the contract and therefore waiving their rights to complain regarding the products they are using. The consumers agreed to purchase the product stating that providers are not liable for any problems that may arise afterward such transaction. This is their