Multiven Dossier 3

all the net works™

Software Consumer Bill of Rights

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Inside

Overview 1
History 1
Impact 1
Legacy Approach 2
21st Century Approach 2
Software Consumer Bill of Rights 3
Change is On the Way 4
About the Author 4

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all the net works™

Software Consumer Bill of Rights

Overview

As more and more of our day-to-day life migrate to the Internet, we are reminded that our sole mode of
interacting with work, academia and social resources is through software which unfortunately, does not
always work as expected because of bugs. A software bug is the common term used to describe an
inherent manufacturer error, flaw, mistake, failure or fault in software that prevents it from behaving as

“
intended, causing it to produce an incorrect or unexpected result. [1]
Over sixty years later,
inherent manufacturer
software defects ("soft- History
ware bug" or "bug")
are still with us, and The buggy computer began on the 9th of September 1947 when engineers found a moth between the
show no sign of becoming points of Relay #70, in Panel F of the Harvard University Mark II Aiken Relay Calculator (a primitive
extinct because of one computer). The computer was running a test of its multiplier and adder when the engineers noticed

”
simple fact - mankind something was wrong. The moth was trapped, removed and taped into the computer's logbook with the
is fallible. words: "first actual case of a bug being found." [2]

Over sixty years later, inherent manufacturer software defects ("software bug" or "bug") are still with us,
and show no sign of becoming extinct because of one simple fact - mankind is fallible. Only now is the
seriousness of software bugs more extreme. Some of the subtle impact of bugs in daily life include
sudden cell phones resets, car recalls, router crashes, electricity grid degradation, air traffic control
system malfunctions and Internet outages.

Impact

Bugs can have a wide variety of effects, with varying levels of inconvenience to the user of the software.
Some bugs have a subtle effect on the software's functionality, and may thus lie undetected for a long
time, while more serious bugs may cause the software to crash or freeze leading to a denial of service.
Others qualify as security bugs and might for example, enable a malicious user to bypass access
controls in order to obtain unauthorized privilege. [1]

The results of bugs may be extremely serious. Software bugs impacting the Therac-25 radiation
therapy machine were directly responsible for some patient deaths in the 1980s. [2] In 1996, the

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European Space Agency's US$1 Billion prototype Ariane 5 rocket was destroyed less than a minute
after launch because of a bug in the on-board guidance computer software. A bug in a new release of
software bugs, or errors, the software that controlled AT&T's #4ESS long distance phone switches caused these mammoth
are so prevalent and computers to crash when they receive a specific message from one of their neighboring machines -- a
so detrimental that they message that the neighbors send out after recovering from a crash.One day a switch in New York crashes
cost the US economy

”
and reboots, causing its neighboring switches to crash, then their neighbors' neighbors, and so on.
an estimated $59 Soon, 114 switches are crashing and rebooting every six seconds, leaving an estimated sixty-thousand
billion annually. people without long distance service for nine hours. The fix: engineers loaded the previous software
image. In June 1994, a Royal Air Force Chinook crashed into the Mull of Kintyre, killing 29 people. This
was initially dismissed as pilot error, but an investigation by Computer Weekly uncovered sufficient
evidence to convince a House of Lords inquiry that it may have been caused by a software bug in the
aircraft's engine control computer. In 2002, a study commissioned by the US Department of Commerce'
National Institute of Standards and Technology concluded that software bugs, or errors, are so preva-
lent and so detrimental that they cost the US economy an estimated $59 billion annually, or about 0.6
percent of the gross domestic product. [1][2]

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all the net works™ Software Consumer Bill of Rights

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Legacy Approach
Unlike hardware, which
can break down from The approach taken to handle software bugs to date by many companies have been sufficient. For
use or abuse, there is example, owners of Apple Computers and Microsoft operating system and application software receive
real-time software bug fixes sent directly to their computers over the Internet. So do owners of Hewlett-

”
no wear-and-tear in
software. Packard Procurve networking equipment. However, most other software manufacturers, especially in
the Internet infrastructure industry (i.e. makers of routers, switches, firewalls, storage equipment etc.)
do not provide free ongoing bug fixes to customers that have purchased their software. Instead, they
have blatantly required consumers to pay additional fees either directly or by having consumers of their
software purchase their service contracts in order to receive bug fixes. This, of course, causes consum-
ers to pay much more than they should for the upkeep of the software they own, and allows companies
to publish software before they have performed adequate quality assurance testing. After all, why spend
time and money testing it yourself when consumers will test it for you anyway? This is especially true in
most of the Internet networking equipment industry, where most equipment manufacturers make propri-
etary software that runs only on their own equipment, so owners of such equipment do not have other,
competitive software options for such hardware.

“ If you've paid for

software, you should
21st Century Approach

”
never have to pay for The world is currently transitioning into accessing Software as-a-Service (SaaS) over the Internet on a
bug fixes. pay-as-you-go monthly subscription basis, rather than the legacy model of purchasing a software disc
or downloading it from the manufacturer’s website, installing and operating it, running into software
bugs and then contacting the manufacturer to request the appropriate bug fixes. Naturally, then, if SaaS
software fails to function as expected and the manufacturer either fails to rectify the problem immedi-
ately or requires the consumer to pay additional fees for bug fixes, the consumer will simply transition
to another provider and request for a refund, much the same way someone wouldn’t purchase a brand
new product that is inherently defective and hold onto it after finding out it can’t fulfill the functions it was
purchased for. Interestingly enough, though, the software industry is the only industry that is allowed to
sell inherently defective products – probably because it is expected by consumers that acquiring fixes
to such defects will not be at additional costs.

Unlike hardware, which can break down from use or abuse, there is no wear-and-tear in software. As
such, all bugs in proprietary software are inherent manufacturer defects that should be corrected for all
consumers with valid software licenses, free of charge. If you’ve paid for software, you should never
have to pay for bug fixes.

With these thoughts in mind, Multiven hereby proposes the following Bill of Rights for all consumers that
have paid for software (”Consumers”).

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all the net works™ Software Consumer Bill of Rights

Software Consumer Bill of Rights

[3]
1. Consumers that have paid for software have the right to receive free bug fixes for their
software's useful life.

Software manufacturers should back up what they say their software product can do. If software is
supposed to be able to do X, Y and Z but a bug in the software does not allow Y to function as
documented in certain instances, then the manufacturer should provide the bug fixes for Y to all the
customers that purchased its software. There are several ways to implement this. Having customers
register their software product and serial number at the time of purchase is one quick and simple
solution.

2. Consumers that have paid for software have the right to receive proactive notifications of all
software defects in their feature sets, as well as the bug fixes, as they are available.

Notification is another important right of consumers. We all see this almost daily with our operating
systems and application software on our personal computers, with preemptive bug fixes pushed to
customers over the Internet as "Software Updates". This should be required of all software manufactur-
ers.

Software manufacturers without the ability for over-the-Internet preemptive "push" notifications should
proactively notify customers of defects, either through email, RSS feed, podcast, blog, microblog or
website postings. This is especially important in the Internet networking field, as it will help companies
avoid many Internet and networking software problems that other customers have encountered and the
manufacturer has rectified.

3. Consumers that have paid for software have the right to report all software defects to the
manufacturer and the manufacturer must provide the customer with a bug ID and make all
reasonable efforts to resolve all such bugs at no extra cost to the consumer.

Without access to the software source code, there is no legal way to introduce bugs into proprietary
software. Moreover, software does not suffer any wear and tear like physical products do. Therefore,
all bugs present in software were there at the time of purchase and software manufacturers should
repair all such defects.

The more users are impacted by a bug, the higher its severity and the faster the manufacturer should
provide fixes for it.

4. Consumers that have paid for software have the right to the software operating manual,
release notes, caveats and bug databases for the useful life of the software.

Such important information should be shared with customers so that they can properly operate their
software and proactively plan, diagnose and solve problems as they occur.

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all the net works™ Software Consumer Bill of Rights

Change is On the Way

In May 2009 European Union Commissioners Viviane Reding and Meglena Kuneva initiated a proposal
that will hold software manufacturers liable for their software much the same way producers of physical
products are held liable for their product's inability to function as expected. [4] We hope other Government
software and Information Technology industry watchgroup agencies around the world (e.g. United States
Department of Justice) will follow suit to adequately protect the rights of software consumers.

About the author

The Multiven Dossier is compiled periodically by the Multiven Consumer Advocacy Group, a unit of
Multiven – the networking industry’s first vendor-neutral provider of premium multivendor Internet
Protocol network services – to educate, enlighten and empower consumers, corporations and govern-
ment agencies about ethical issues within the networking industry.

As always, Multiven's main goal is to ensure the proper and continuously efficient functioning of
the Internet, and the fair treatment of consumers.

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_bug - Retrieved on 2009-07-10

2. http://www.wired.com/software/coolapps/news/2005/11/69355 - Retrieved on 2009-07-10
3.This applies to purchased software only. Open-source software that is offered for free is not a concern since consumers do not have to pay to procure them.
4. http://news.cnet.com/8301-1001_3-10237212-92.html - Retrieved on 2009-07-10

Multiven, the Multiven Dossier and the Multiven logo are registered trademarks of Multiven, Inc. All
other company and product names may be trademarks of the respective companies with which they
are associated.

All contents are Copyright © 2009 Multiven, Inc. All rights reserved