FBI tells router users to reboot now to kill malware infecting 500k devices

Re:FBI tells router users to reboot now to kill malware infe... by whatshisface on Saturday May 26, 2018 @03:20PM (#17163787)

If you install someone's free plastic brake pads, you're at fault for whatever happens - and if someone offers to give you something for free and you agree, they don't have to follow through. If you buy them, there's an implied contract that you will receive them. In that implied contract, our society has also inserted "and they won't kill you." The idea that every time a dollar changes hands an implied contract is made underlies US business law. Related to this idea is how rights holders will be offered money for photographs they're giving away for free - because the person who wants to use the image wants to be protected by the implied contract. In this system money is the magic spice that makes agreements real. (If someone gives you their car for free, the courts will sometimes let them take it back. Not so if they sell it for a dollar.)

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Re:FBI tells router users to reboot now to kill malware infe... by adventured on Saturday May 26, 2018 @04:28PM (#17164109)

That's not how liability works at all. That's an idealistic interpretation of the law that has never actually existed.

It does not matter if you charge for your service or product, nor how much you charge, you can still be found criminally negligent or reckless if it kills people and your actions played an important role. There are very few exceptions to that.

In civil terms it's far more straight forward: if your free brakes kill people, you will be sued for it (almost guaranteed). From there they will attempt to prove that you were negligent regarding the quality of the free brakes you created.

You give away thousands of free chicken sandwiches, that without your knowledge happen to contain bacteria that causes food poisoning and ends up killing several people. You did a very poor, careless job at food prep (similar to the dangerously manufactured brakes). You're almost guaranteed to be pursued criminally and civilly for the deaths.

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