[comp.sys.dec.micro] Correction to Rainbow BIOS changes

rgt%beta@LANL.GOV (Richard Thomsen) (09/08/88)

I may have been too quick at saying that I will release the changes.
The lawyers assure me that I will probably not be sued by DEC if I do release
them, but also tell me that anyone else may sue me if there is a problem.
The plan was to release it to other Rainbow owners to increase the usefullness
of their machines, but I have to consider that someone could lose some data
and accuse me of planting a virus or worse.  They could sue me due to some
bug in the code, even if the bug came from DEC or their own misuse of the
program.  We all know what lawyers do to disclaimers.

My insurance company says that this is job-related, and thus will provide
no coverage.  Now I am not sure that it is worth the risk.  My wife says
that I should just forget it; the risks are too much for no gain.

It is a pity that you cannot try to help others without considering that
they might sue you for your help.

I am still looking into the problem and possibilities.  One is the purchase
of business liability insurance, but that drives costs up.

						Richard Thomsen

PS:     DEC and Rainbow are trademarks of Digital Equipment Corporation.

eileenp@teklds.TEK.COM (Eileen Phelan) (09/09/88)

In article <8809081338.AA17038@beta.lanl.gov> rgt%beta@LANL.GOV (Richard Thomsen) writes:
>I may have been too quick at saying that I will release the changes.
...
>them, but also tell me that anyone else may sue me if there is a problem.

Can't everybody sign a release?  I would certainly be willing to.
Your BIOS is a very important piece of software; surely there must
be a way around this.

Whatever comes of this, thank you very much for your efforts.

Eileen Phelan
eileenp@teklds.TEK.COM