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[Chapter 26] 26.4 Other Liability
We won't comment on the nature of the laws involved, or the fanatic zeal with which some people pursue
prosecution under these statutes. We will observe that if you or your users have images or text online (for
FTP, WWW, Usenet, or otherwise) that may be considered "indecent" or "obscene," you may wish to
discuss the issue with legal counsel. In general, the U.S. Constitution protects most forms of expression
as "free speech." However, prosecution may be threatened or attempted simply to intimidate and cause
economic hardship: this is not prohibited by the Constitution.
We should also point out that as part of any sensible security administration, you should know what you
have on your computer, and why. Keep track of who is accessing material you provide, and beware of
unauthorized use.
26.4.6 Liability for Damage
Suppose that one of your users puts up a nifty new program on your anonymous FTP site for people to
use. It claims to protect any system against some threat, or fixes a vendor flaw. Someone at the Third
National Bank of Hoople downloads it and runs the program, and the system then crashes, leading to
thousands of dollars in damages.
Or perhaps you are browsing the WWW and discover an applet in a language such as Java that you find
quite interesting. You install a link to it from your home page. Unfortunately, someone on the firewall
machine at Big Whammix, Inc. clicks on the link and the applet somehow interacts with the firewall code
to open an internal network to hackers around the world.
If your response to such incidents is, "Too bad. Software does that sometimes," then you are living
dangerously. Legal precedent is such that you might be liable, at least partially, for damages in cases
such as these. You could certainly be sued and need to answer in court to such charges, and that is not a
pleasant experience. Think about explaining how you designed and tested the code, how you documented
it, and how you warned other users about potential defects and side effects. How about the implied
warranty?
Simply because "everyone on the net" does an action, does not mean that the action will convince a judge
and jury that you aren't responsible for some of the mess that action causes. There have been many times
in the history of the United States that people have been successfully sued for activity which was
widespread. The mere fact that "everybody was doing it" did not stop some particular individuals from
being found liable.
In general, you should get expert legal advice before providing any executable code to others, even if you
intend to give the code away.
26.4.7 Harassment, Threatening Communication, and Defamation
Computers and networks give us great opportunities for communicating with the world. In a matter of
moments, our words can be speeding around the world destined for someone we have never met in
person, or for a large audience. Not only is this ability liberating and empowering, it can be very
entertaining. Mailing lists, "chat rooms," MUDS, newsgroups, and more all provide us with news and
entertainment.
Unfortunately, this same high-speed, high-bandwidth communications medium can also be used for
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