I diritti dell'utente

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:

1. Let the customer see the contract before the sale.
2. Disclose known defects.
3. The product (or information service) must live up to the manufacturer's and seller's claims.
4. User has right to see and approve all transfers of information from her computer.
5. A software vendor may not block customer from accessing his own data without court approval.
6. A software vendor may not prematurely terminate a license without court approval.
7. Mass-market customers may criticize products, publish benchmark study results, and make fair use of a product.
8. The user may reverse engineer the software.
9. Mass-market software should be transferrable.
10. 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.