Tim, > If a catastrophic software failure results in a high percentage of > lost revenue, a corporation might be able to seek monetary > compensation from a commercial vendor. They could even be taken to > court - depending upon licensing, product descriptions, promises made > in product literature, etc. For cases like open source projects, like > PostgreSQL, there is no legal recourse available.
Well, there's the perception and the reality. I can't argue that company lawyers and auditors will *not* make the above argument; they very well may, especially if they are personally pro-MS or pro-Oracle. You may be on to something there. However, the argument is hogwash from a practical perspective. In pratice, it is nearly impossible to sue a company for bad software (witness various class actions against Microsoft). SO much so that one of the hottest-debated portions of the vastly flawed UCITA is software liability and "lemon laws". Plus in some states, the vendor's EULA (which always disclaims secondary liability) is more powerful than local consumer law. Or from a financial perspective: An enterprise MS SQL 2000 user can expect to pay, under Licensing 6.0, about $10,000 - $20,000 a year in licnesing fees -- *not including any support*. Just $2000-$5000 buys you a pretty good $10 million software failure insurance policy. Do the math. As I said, I don't disreagard your argument. Just because it's hogwash doesn't mean that people don't believe it. -Josh Berkus ---------------------------(end of broadcast)--------------------------- TIP 1: subscribe and unsubscribe commands go to [EMAIL PROTECTED]