product liability (was 'we should all be uncomfortable with the extent to which luck..')

Wed Jul 25 22:52:47 UTC 2001

Yo Chance!

On Wed, 25 Jul 2001, Chance Whaley wrote:

> I don't remember IBM or EDS being sued on the times when ATC has failed.
> Jeppeson hasn't been sued for issuing incorrect maps either. Software
> programmers arent sued when monitoring machines in hospitals fail. Oh
> that's right, because there are neat things called "Limits of
> Liability", "Gross Negligence", and "Malicious Intent".

Do some research.  Just because you have not heard about it does not
mean it did not happen.  Jeppeson lost a BIG one after the AA crash in Cali.
Jeppesson still has suits pending about Ron Brown's (US Commerce
Secretary) going down in Kosovo.  Technicare (a former client of mine)
lost a BIG one after the runaway software on a CAT scanner fried a patient
to death.  Never heard of anyone dieing due to an ATC outage so that
issue is still open.

In any case, the comment I was replying to was about software not
being able to hurt anybody. The US legal system found in two of the
cases above that it can and has.

RGDS
GARY
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