Should Microsoft Be Liable for Bugs in Its Products?

How can there be so many opinions on this dumb topic? I mean, honestly, you computer freaks, Microsoft should be held liable for its products. End of discussion. I don't see what the big fuss is about.

Hi Paul. Here is my nickle's worth: We SHOULD NOT hold Microsoft liable for malware and viruses (yes for not working as advertised).

Our whole model is upside-down. Viruses and malware COULD NOT SPREAD, if the intermediaries (ISPs and routing farms in the core) were required to block all known stuff, as soon as a signature is identified.

End users (my mom) CAN'T be taught how to stop this stuff - and lazy (or uninformed) administrators can't be stopped from being lazy or uninformed. Stop it en-route and it will die within minutes (as opposed to years, as several have been bouncing around the web).

Like many things in our society, we need to bear the responsibility individually for our own protection.

We have auto insurance, reimbursing us after an incident, but we have regulations, also that require a certain standard of quality in the products we drive. We should be evaluating those products BEFORE we buy them. There is no lack of information, certainly.

We lock our front doors, and keep homeowner's insurance, but again, we need to bear the responsibility of taking care of our own property to forestall tragedy as best we can.

There are contracts we sign which warn of possible dangers, but they are so complex that we seldom read them before we sign. We need to bite the bullet and read them, or live with the consequences.

There must come a day when we are held responsible for our own possessions, and that we, as consumers, become smarter, more wary, more intelligent and better informed.

We cannot continue to push the blame off on the creator - unless of course, there is some proof of gross IRresponsiblity, carelessness, malice or other evil intent. If we do not buy poor products, the companies that sell them will no longer hold onto business, and they will fail.

Microsoft is a fine company, which makes fine products, and which, in my opinion, supports those products admirably. Where, in this world is anything perfect - though we may strive for perfection, we seldom attain it. Does Microsoft attempt to give us good products, and inform us and support us? I think so... and better than most companies. And are we willing to WAIT for the perfection that is possible, if the developing product were given the time it needs to become near-perfect?

I do think we need to insist on quality - as much as it is feasible - but then again, we are always looking for newer, brighter, fancier, better, smarter, cheaper... and insisting that companies fulfill all those hedonistic desires - immediately!

You can't have it both ways: You want quality, you must wait the time it takes to create a perfect product. In a society such as ours, since other companies won't wait while one company strives for perfection, the "one company" will go out of business, because we purchase products, wanting them "NOW", expecting perfection, knowing we will not get it, and then we, American society that we are, proceed to SUE the company for giving us the product we purchased... and risking more money, time and effort on the lawsuit!

We need to start taking some personal responsibility for our own lives... and stop looking for people and companies to blame.

I have been a user of Microsoft products since DOS 1.0.
Have dealt with an excessive number of bugs and severe program errors during all those years.

But the grossest one of these occurred when I participated in the BETA TEST PROGRAM for Windows 2000.
The BETA software was plagued with numerous bugs. I reported all that I found on initial installation. And as I discovered new bugs and errors during that BETA TEST period. I was at the same time impressed with much of what I saw and used.
I purchased my copy on Windows 2000 Pro the first day it was released. Was anxious to use a copy with all the bugs repaired.
WRONG!!!!
Every single bug that was there in the ETA TEST program. Was still there in the released version. Not a single one had been corrected.
Should Microsoft be held responsible?
Absolutely.
Yet as a customer, I assume full responsibility for the Gross Errors that Microsoft knowingly releases to the public. I say knowingly, because reported bugs were not corrected. In my eyes this is virtually criminal on the part of Microsoft.
My personal losses, when man hours are allowed to be considered in addition to actual physical losses. Probably equal abut 50 times my investment in their software. And I still use it, because there is no substitute available that I can afford to own.

This PC has an Intel Pentiun 4, 2.8GHz, 800FSB with Hyper-Threading Technology. 1,024 MB PC3300 DDR memory.
It was shipped with the current release of Windows XP. The first Windows upgrade was 29 different software fixes. After being in use all these many months.

I will begin with my answer and then state why. Answer: NO Everywhere I look, we still keep trying to chase the notion that it must be perfect. Nothing man-made has ever been designed, produced, or delivered without it's defects, blemishes, quirks, emperfections and the like. I relate this to small forest that if left along provides wood for building, heat for warmth, shade from the elements, protection from the seasonal weather changes, but the signs posted say "Forest Produced By GOD, but God is NOT Responsible for Man's Move to Make Better" We (MAN) start to say that the tree's in the forest are not big enough, or have been placed in the wrong place where by it blocks our view of the sun. Result we cut down the trees' and when the floods come we want to blame something or somebody because nothing was there to hold back the tide. I could go on and on, but the result would still be the same if you want perfection DON'T Open that CAGE, once the cat is out there is the scratching, marking, the additional noise, and the occasional bluppers. Thank You the oppurtunity to respond.