'Code Red' Damages & Legal Imlications

Anyone can sue anybody for any reason, whether you collect any money is another story. Considering that MS has billions of dollars and thousands of lawyers; do you think you can afford a 10 year lawsuit? Many companies have gone broke trying to sue, even if they eventually win, there isn't a company left; so what have they won?

I think that the best thing that could happen would be that the government sues MS for poorly written and secured software. UTICA is going to make this extremely difficult, it basically releases a software company from having any responsibility for their product. In the end, it wouldn't be worth the effort to sue.

Don

Sadly, i agree with the previous post. Even if it could be proven without a doubt the MS produced poorly written code,(ok, they do, just try to prove it in court), MS has such vast funds, and can afford so much litigation, there is no real reason tothink you could win. I don't. The only group that can take on MS and hope to win is the government. If you really feel like you want to pursue this, contact the state procecuter and see if they want to add this to any ongoing antitrust action. Otherwise, read "Bleak House" by Charles Dickens to get a taste of what sueing MS would be like.

There is one little piece of the puzzle you're missing and that is the role of the Network Administrator. Although I am far from an apologist for Microsoft, in this case Microsoft admitted that a problem existed and provided a patch that works and did so in a timely manner.

So, at this point, if I were a juror asked to hear a lawsuit on this issue, I would attribute the negligence to the Network Administrators that have not fulfilled their duty to maintain the currency of their servers.

Where Microsoft would have a liability would be a case in which it could be shown that they were aware of a problem but suppressed any public awareness and failed to provide a patch. And I believe there are some instances in which that has happened.

So, raise a street mob if you must, but at least pick a winnable case. The CodeRed worm situation is not.

paul

How is it that naidu_cas@yahoo.com posted this question and user_deleted answers the question? Hey user_deleted, I have an idea, you send me $1000 or more to start a lawsuit against. How are admins supposed to organise against MS? The only way is by not using MS products, we usually do not get to pick if we run on MS or some other product. More and more, we are using other software, eventually MS will either get better or lose more market share.

By the way, User_deleted has asked 280 questions and not rated a single one. You're also running multiple profiles so you can amass more points and look like you know something. Get a life!

Don

Show me one million line application that is totally bug free. Oh wait this is the real world. Programmers that work under deadlines do not always have time or the desire to throughly test every single line of code for every single possibility or eventuality that may occur. They have to have working code in a timely manner or they do not get paid. That said, yes I program and know what its like to be under a produce or else time frame. I also administer a fairly large corporate network. Yes we had every server patched, except for one, a very important one. But we resolved the issue and went on. Unchecked buffer exploits are found in almost every piece of code in use today. The only time they get fixed are when some hacker (non-threatening and/or malicious) publishes an exploit that threatens to destroy data or run DDOS attacks. Microsoft isn't alone in this respect. When Unix first started, how many security related holes were there, and if unix or whatever *ix OS were just release not the version that is out now, but the one released initially by Bell labs, and millions of people were using it, how prone to security attacks would it be. I am not bashing Unix, unix is a very mature OS and has time to grow up, without the exposure that Microsofts OS's have had. Holes in software are found everyday, check out NIPC's CYBERNOTES and see how many.
Network admins need to be more proactive when holes are found and patches are available. The fix for code red was out in June. A whole month before Code red surfaced. Who is to blame? I don't know but the kick in the pants method of making admins aware that their seemingly secure box can turn on them, will undoubtedly make an impression.

Does any one remember reading the EULA(end user Licence agreement)? if so you have the answers. If you haven?t read it fully now is the time to do so (search for EULA.txt should find it) because it leave the user no recourse at all for damages beyond the actual cost of the software(you don?t buy the software just the right to use it!) break the terms of the agreement and you could lose the right to use the software! The EULA is something most people don?t pay attention to witch we should because it is a legal document you agreed to when you said yes I accept the terms. Microsoft has acted upon companies and individuals for breaking it.

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