Dan Gillmor punta a un interessantissimo pezzo di Cem Kaner, molto ben documentato e pieno di link interessanti, dal titolo “Software Customer Bill of Rights” che riassume un poco l’evoluzione della legge americana sul software e, trovandola manchevole, porpone che all’utente vengano garantiti almeno i seguenti diritti:
- Let the customer see the contract before the sale.
- Disclose known defects.
- The product (or information service) must live up to the manufacturer’s and seller’s claims.
- User has right to see and approve all transfers of information from her computer.
- A software vendor may not block customer from accessing his own data without court approval.
- A software vendor may not prematurely terminate a license without court approval.
- Mass-market customers may criticize products, publish benchmark study results, and make fair use of a product.
- The user may reverse engineer the software.
- Mass-market software should be transferrable.
- When software is embedded in a product, the law governing the product should govern the software.
Mi pare il minimo, ma temo che siamo lontanissimi: 1, 2, 3, 7, e 8 mi sembrano addirittura fantascienza.