56 lines
2.3 KiB
Plaintext
56 lines
2.3 KiB
Plaintext
#help.tut PRESS ENTER FOR HELP
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#define.stb Definitions of legal terms
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TUTORIAL-- FILE TRANSFER LIABILITY
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A few stories about the law. Don't shut down your BBS and hide in
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a sanitized packing crate. Although BBS systems have significant
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liability in these areas, the liability is manageable-- with the
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proper disclaimers and procedures, which will occupy the second
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half of this lesson.
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Scenario # 1-- The awful download
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A BBS receives an upload of an innocuous looking program. Because
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the sysop is careful, all files are scanned with industry
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standard virus detection programs. The file passes the check and
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is posted for download.
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The innocuous program is in fact virus free. However, it is so
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badly written (an array is dimensioned too large, and bumps into
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space occupied by other programs and the operating system) that
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it locks up the computer of the user. As a result, the user
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doesn't finish a job on time and loses $ 1,000.
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Who is liable for the negligent programming? The answer may
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surprise you---
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the author, and quite arguably the BBS itself!
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If the user has "donated" or "paid" a fee for use of the BBS, the
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download can be interpreted as a sale of a program. The Uniform
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Commercial Code provides that unless warranties are disclaimed
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that all products sold by "merchants" carry a warranty of
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"merchantability" and other warranties. Under the law of
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"products liability" a person who creates, as well as a person
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who DISTRIBUTES items that will be used by consumers
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Who is a merchant? Any one with specialized knowledge within a
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field is a merchant. Thus, a rug seller is charged with knowing,
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and behaving like someone who knows the rug trade. As a BBS
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operator, you are arguably a merchant in the area of computers
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and software.
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Warranty liability can be lessened, or even excluded by the
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proper use of disclaimers. However, under the modern law of
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products liability, warranty liability cannot be disclaimed if
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a party introduces a product into the stream of commerce and it
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is used without inspection for flaws.
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Therefore, if the BBS system requires that users inspect the
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program for flaws, it is no longer subject to products liability
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under the products liability law. Therefore, our disclaimers
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require that the user test the file himself.
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