[Spotted in Ted Leung on the air>http://www.sauria.com/blog/2003/08/28#530]. In that, Ted makes the premise that Open Source may actually be better than Closed Source. I'm not sure that's true, but lets go along with it for the sake of the argument.

The theory then goes that you can sue Closed Source companies because they are liable. Are Open Source companies liable? - Yes, if they sold you their software. If you picked it up off the 'net without buying it though - are they still liable? I'm no lawyer, but it strikes me as a big NO.

Unless you *Buy* it off the authors/company/whatever, they wouldn't be held accountable for any damaged caused by running your program. On that note: What about the common liability claus in most software licenses? Can that save Closed Source companies butts?