Are potential legal liabilities holding back Linux adoption? (TechRepublic)

[Posted September 20, 2005 by corbet]

Here's a TechRepublic Article looking at whether patent fears are slowing down Linux. The answer is mostly "no," but there is an interesting side look at OSRM: "OSRM announced that its insurance would be available via brokers and that the risk would be underwritten by Lloyd's of London syndicates. However, [Red Hat counsel Mark] Webbink has questions to ask about this move too. 'The announcement was interesting from the standpoint that it contained no quotes from anyone at Lloyd's, and subsequent inquiries by others - not me- to Lloyd's raised significant questions as to the veracity of the CEO of OSRM's assertion,' he says. 'Moreover, to our knowledge, OSRM is not licensed to broker insurance in its home state of North Carolina or anywhere else in the U.S.' OSRM has not been able to clarify the matter for TechRepublic."

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Are potential legal liabilities holding back Linux adoption? (TechRepublic)

Posted Sep 21, 2005 7:37 UTC (Wed) by thyrsus (subscriber, #21004) [Link] (1 responses)

OSRM repeatedly uses the term "indemnification", and has this legal disclaimer.

Does OSRM sell insurance?

Posted Sep 24, 2005 19:45 UTC (Sat) by giraffedata (guest, #1954) [Link]

OSRM says there, "OSRM's indemnification offering and services do not constitute an insurance product and should not be considered insurance." Interestingly, it says on another page, "OSRM provides Insurance Solutions in two areas," where from context we can see that "solution" is a neologism for "product." Of course, neither of these two general statements carries as much legal weight as the specifics of what OSRM offers, and OSRM doesn't give any on the web site.

But from what I recall from an LWN interview, OSRM's products may not be insurance. To be insurance, it has to be gambling -- neither the seller nor the buyer, but especially the seller, can be in control of the indemnified risk. (So e.g. US Postal Service "insurance" isn't). I believe what OSRM does is provide a software analysis service -- it tells you whether your software is what it appears to be. You get a warranty with that service, so if the advice turns out to be bad and you get harmed by your reliance on it, OSRM makes you whole.

I can see room for disagreement, though, as to how much actual "service" is involved in certifying the software.