McAfee's Trojan horse error gets developer's goat

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But... but...

MacAfees excuse: "We released a new DAT file to fix Griffith's problem on Thursday." Way to go McAfee: here's the "closing the door after the horse has escaped" award.

Think about it McAfee users. The people who lose this file "Can't connect to their ISP", which implies that they can't connect to the Internet, which implies that they can't pick-up McAfee's corrected DAT file. To make matters worse the software has already been deleted by McAfee so even if the customer could get the DAT file installing it won't correct undelete the program. All McAfee did was prevent future damage.

The question in any lawsuit would be is the burden on McAfee to ascertain that they do not remove useful software or is the burden on the moving party to ascertain that McAfee doesn't overreach and delete their product? That's quite a question. Is McAfee's steps to prevent future damage enough to get them off the hook for past damage?

Now there's a civil case I'd love to see argued. The results would affect all developers everywhere, whose products unitentionally cause harm. I think there will be a great industry pressure on McAfee to settle as no-one really wants to be responsible for transcendental or incidental damage.

Posted by: John Le'Brecage   Posted on: 09/10/04 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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