The recent article “EC wants software makers held liable for code" explains how software developers and organisations could be held responsible for the security and robustness of their applications, if a new EC consumer protection proposal becomes law.

The proposed change is part of an EU action agenda put forward by the commissioners after highlighting gaps in EU consumer protection. The EU consumer commissioner Meglena Kuneva has said:

"If we want consumers to shop around and exploit the potential of digital communications, then we need to give them confidence that their rights are guaranteed,"

Although consumer rights are important, this proposal would certainly add extra cost to the development of software and pass on these costs to the consumer with inflated prices. Developers need to ensure they create robust and reliable software otherwise they will gain bad PR and no one will use their software. This alone is enough to police the software development community.

Security holes are never intended, but are found and exploited by people with the sole intention to find and break mainstream software. Because most software is developed behind closed doors with the code invisible to the outside world, the extent of how much a piece of software could be exploited is generally unknown.

However there are another group of software developers that are becoming increasingly respected and producing great applications that serve the needs of many users. These people develop ‘Open Source’ software where anyone can view and request changes to the original source code of a project. A open door development process allows for many security issues to be found and resolved before distributed to consumers, thanks to the amount of people that can review and make recommendations to the code and community.

Many open source applications are made on a ‘Not for profit’ basis, where the software is free to download. Some of the most popular open source software applications are:

• Apache web server
• Linux operating system
• Firefox web browser
• MYSQL database system
• OpenOffice.org office productivity suite

If the proposal requires Open Source Software development to meet the same criteria as commercially driven software, it could stifle and cheapen Open Source software. The Linux kernel developer Alan Cox once told a House of Lords Committee ; “that neither proprietary nor open-source developers should be held accountable for their code.”

There have been many software related battles fought in the courts over time and problems get resolved. So why fix a system that isn’t broken?

In our world technology evolves and inspires people, it makes life easier and allows everyone to achieve more than they could have previously. Software development should be encouraged and supported so developers continue to evolve and create new ground breaking ideas. Stifling this industry at the starting blocks with requirements and standards will only halt and discourage new starters and developments within the industry.