what the heck do i do now?

Thu Feb 1 04:19:04 UTC 2007

As an, ahem, lawyer, I think what you do and how you do it matter a lot 
here.  And it would be prudent to talk to someone who understood your 
facts and situation before doing some of the things discussed in this 
thread.  (I won't be more specific for fear of sounding like I'm giving 
legal advice, YMMV, probably not admitted where you live, if this were 
advice it would trigger a bill, see generally disclaimers at 
http://www.law.tm/disclaimers.html .)

Pulling a plug after reasonable/lots of warnings (did you miss anyone? how 
do you know for sure?) is on the safer end of the legal spectrum.

Trying something that has the noble intention of directing cluebat to 
cranial density... well, that's different.  It has the ability to be spun 
as malicious.  Will the judge and jury get it?  Who will pay for the 
lawyer who will explain it to them?  What if it was a government computer 
that got hosed?  Will this be civil or criminal liability?

Bottom line is that in the absence of a promise -- explicit or implicit 
(!) -- to the contrary, you can usually turn off your gear and get on with 
your life (but would you want to if it was a hospital that got hosed? how 
would you feel in the morning?).  The more your actions deviate from that, 
the more likely you are taking on some level of risk.  In some scenarios 
it's an acceptable level, but it all depends.

It is impossible to know with any confidence without knowing more details, 
but from the face of it, it is far from obvious to me that Mark Foster's 
lawyer got this wrong.

(Meanwhile, this will make a great exam question some day.)

On Wed, 31 Jan 2007, Chris Owen wrote:

>
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> On Jan 31, 2007, at 9:16 PM, Mark Foster wrote:
>
>>> list... I talked to my lawyer. And while I am not a lawyer, I can tell you 
>>> that my lawyer pointed out several interesting legal theories under which 
>>> I could have some serious liability, and so I don't do that any more. (As 
>>> an example, consider what happens *to you* if a hospital stops getting 
>>> emailed results back from their outside laboratory service because their 
>>> "email firewall" is checking your server, and someone dies as a result of 
>>> the delay)
>>> 
>>> So while I think you'd be justified in doing it, I think you'd find that 
>>> 1) lots of people wouldn't change their configs at all, and 2) you might 
>>> find that your liability insurance doesn't cover deliberate acts.
>>> 
>> 
>> Uhm.  I don't follow?
>
> I my experience, people who tell stories like this really just need to get a 
> better lawyer.  I've had several lawyers contact us on things about this lame 
> and have found that that the one sentence reply letter is often the most 
> effective:
>
> Dear Sir:
>
> Kiss my what?
>
> Never hear from them again.
>
> Chris
>
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-- 
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A. Michael Froomkin   |    Professor of Law    |   froomkin at law.tm
U. Miami School of Law, P.O. Box 248087, Coral Gables, FL 33124 USA
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