2 ms·

> You cannot sue a programmer for writing a bug in software ... Of course you can. > It is the company's responsibility ... Not if the programmer was hired

by lutusp 13y ago

> You cannot sue a programmer for writing a bug in software ... Of course you can. > It is the company's responsibility ... Not if the programmer was hired for his independent expertise rather than to be told what to do, and how to do it, by higher-ups. That's a a common arrangement in small companies. > There are so many bugs in software, that this would be a terrible standard to set, and no developer would be safe. All true, but surely you realize that lawyers and judges don't necessarily ask themselves, "Is this fair?" Remember that a group of scientists were successfully convicted of manslaughter in Italy for not predicting an earthquake. It was a different country and legal system, but not that different. http://abcnews.go.com/International/scientists-convicted-manslaughter-failing-predict-italian-quake/story?id=17536977 http://abcnews.go.com/International/scientists-convicted-man... The handwriting is on the wall.

tcheard 13y ago
> Not if the programmer was hired for his independent expertise rather than be told what to do, and how to do it, by higher-ups. That's a a common arrangement in small companies. 1. That does not excuse software from a proper code review process, in fact any reasonable software company would probably see this as even more of a reason to code review the code. If I knew that a software company doesn't properly review critical code, I would definitely think twice about using that company's software. 2. Apple is not a small company so that doesn't excuse them in this case. >All true, but surely you realize that lawyers and judges don't necessarily ask themselves, "Is this fair?" Remember that a group of scientists were successfully convicted of manslaughter in Italy for not predicting an earthquake. It was a different country and legal system, but not that different. http://abcnews.go.com/International/scientists-convicted-man.. http://abcnews.go.com/International/scientists-convicted-man.... Come on this is the Italian legal system. No offense to Italy, I believe it to be a beautiful country, but they have had a shocking record in their legal system as of late. And I highly doubt that this would have stood up in many other western legal systems. But even if I concede to all your points, someone on HN should be smart enough to realise that suing someone for a software bug would definitely not be a smart move. And we definitely shouldn't be recommending such a thing. Just like we shouldn't be recommending scientists to be convicted of manslaughter for not predicting an earthquake.
- lutusp 13y ago
  >> Not if the programmer was hired for his independent expertise rather than be told what to do, and how to do it, by higher-ups. That's a a common arrangement in small companies. > 1. That does not excuse software from a proper code review process, in fact any reasonable software company ... You changed the subject. The original subject was whether a programmer could be held accountable for a bug in a computer program. The answer is yes, under civil law, that can happen. There are companies whose computer science departments consist of one person, which was my example, and in such a case, there is no company-wide software review process, because -- as I already said -- the computer science department consists of one person working alone. Feel free to change the subject if you want.

by lutusp 13y ago

tcheard 13y ago

> Not if the programmer was hired for his independent expertise rather than be told what to do, and how to do it, by higher-ups. That's a a common arrangement in small companies. 1. That does not excuse software from a proper code review process, in fact any reasonable software company would probably see this as even more of a reason to code review the code. If I knew that a software company doesn't properly review critical code, I would definitely think twice about using that company's software. 2. Apple is not a small company so that doesn't excuse them in this case. >All true, but surely you realize that lawyers and judges don't necessarily ask themselves, "Is this fair?" Remember that a group of scientists were successfully convicted of manslaughter in Italy for not predicting an earthquake. It was a different country and legal system, but not that different. http://abcnews.go.com/International/scientists-convicted-man.. http://abcnews.go.com/International/scientists-convicted-man.... Come on this is the Italian legal system. No offense to Italy, I believe it to be a beautiful country, but they have had a shocking record in their legal system as of late. And I highly doubt that this would have stood up in many other western legal systems. But even if I concede to all your points, someone on HN should be smart enough to realise that suing someone for a software bug would definitely not be a smart move. And we definitely shouldn't be recommending such a thing. Just like we shouldn't be recommending scientists to be convicted of manslaughter for not predicting an earthquake.

lutusp 13y ago
>> Not if the programmer was hired for his independent expertise rather than be told what to do, and how to do it, by higher-ups. That's a a common arrangement in small companies. > 1. That does not excuse software from a proper code review process, in fact any reasonable software company ... You changed the subject. The original subject was whether a programmer could be held accountable for a bug in a computer program. The answer is yes, under civil law, that can happen. There are companies whose computer science departments consist of one person, which was my example, and in such a case, there is no company-wide software review process, because -- as I already said -- the computer science department consists of one person working alone. Feel free to change the subject if you want.