> 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 i

> 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.