Lawyer nixes filters

[Robert Terry]

Hi,

In a software reuse conference a very close point was made to that 
staated below.  As operators of reuse libraries (repositories), and their 
are some 50+ I know of, we all went about qualifying the software, 
wherein we could have value-added information to make ours a better 
library.  Naturally, levels, contain qualifiers like proof-reading, 
completeness, compilation without error, metrics, etc..  

Well, the story is that some libraries had plans to verify code using 
elaborate algerbraic like methods, therein being able to give it a 
rating.  The legal opinion of this was that we would then become liable 
if the software caused problems (i.e. there is a case where software 
killed people in a radiation application).  The lawyer stated that 
libraries should leave the content value of software between writer and 
user, that we should only act as broker types, fitting problems with 
possible solutions.  We took his advice, 

Bob Terry
http://rbse.mountain.net/MOREplus/





On Fri, 11 Apr 1997, Donald Barclay wrote:

> Karen et al.,
> 
> I just came back from the Texas Library Association meeting in Fort Worth,
> and while there I attended a program on Internet use policies in
> libraries.  One of the librarians there (school? public?) said that the
> lawyer who vets her library's policies told her not to rely on filtering
> programs on the grounds that if a filtering program fails to weed out the
> bad stuff, the library could be secondarily liable.  Her lawyer said that
> relying on a use policy put them on safer legal ground.  This is, of
> course, the opinion of one lawyer. Other lawyers will probably say just
> the opposite. 
> 
> I thought Web4lib would be interested in this.  Anyone else out there had
> any input from lawyers on this topic?
> 
> Donald A. Barclay
> Coordinator of Electronic Services    always the beautiful answer
> University of Houston Libraries       who asks a more beautiful question
> DBarclay at uh.edu                               --e.e. cummings
> 
> 
>