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davorg (18)

davorg
  dave@dave.org.uk
http://dave.org.uk/
Yahoo! ID: daveorguk (Add User, Send Message)

Hacker, author, trainer

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Journal of davorg (18)

Monday October 03, 2005
08:43 AM

Do A Nice Thing - Get Sued

[ #26984 ]

I'm getting very close to just walking away from the nms project. A lot of the time it's just more hassle than it's worth.

This morning I woke up to an email from another "satisfied customer". Apparently people have somehow compromised his site through the use of our formmail program and are using it to send porn spam. This is, of course all highly unlikely but it's impossible to explain why it's impossible as he doesn't include any details of the attack.

And has he contacted me to ask for our help investigating the problem? Well no. He says:

I am now in the process of filing a complaint against you and your website hosting company for providing a tool that can be used in the generating and delivering of SPAM.

I really hate the culture that encourages people to react like this. To attack people immediately without seeing if the problem can be resolved amicably first. And this is getting more and more common. I'm starting to wonder if there's any point in spending time on a project like nms if you just get grief for it.

It's not all bad tho'. Amusingingly, he goes on to say:

I am also contacting Matt Wright to make him aware of your actions in dealing with his script.

I'd be interested to read that email exchange. Matt is completely aware of our project. He's fully in support of it. He even provides downloads of our programs from his site.

p.s. By the way, I should point out that I know I exaggerated in the title of this entry. As far as I know I'm not actually being sued.... yet.


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  • Tell people what to do and they don't listen. Help them and they don't thank you. Give them something and they ask for more, or complain when they are unable to use it.

    I always make a point of trying to email people to thank them for things I use. I know I can't thank everyone individually, but I try to add something a little positive to what I'm sure is an increasingly negative inbox...

    --
    -- "It's not magic, it's work..."
  • He should damned know that it's free software and use at your own risk.

    this is obviously another clueless user show his frustration to the wrong people.

    for you, it is unpleasent to wake up with in the morning. but this could happen to any project. so please don't let that discourage you from the wonderful nms project.
    • Free software is not alone: Microsoft and its suppliers provide the Software and support services (if any) AS IS AND WITH ALL FAULTS, and hereby disclaim all other warranties and conditions, whether express, implied or statutory, including, but not limited to, any (if any) implied warranties, duties or conditions of merchantability, of fitness for a particular purpose, of reliability or availability, of accuracy or completeness of responses, of results, of workmanlike effort, of lack of viruses, and of lack

  • Dear Concerned User,

    As you are surely aware, this software was licensed to you under the terms of the GPL or the Artistic License. Please pay special attention to the following clauses:

    From the GPL:

    NO WARRANTY

    11. BECAUSE THE PROGRAM IS LICENSED FREE OF CHARGE, THERE IS NO WARRANTY FOR THE PROGRAM, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW. EXCEPT WHEN OTHERWISE STATED IN WRITING THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND/OR OTHER PARTIES PROVIDE THE PROGRAM "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED,

    • I was just about to suggest deleting the mail and giving the fact that most people are idiots no further thought, but this is even better.
      • unfortunately those disclaimers are not valid in all countries. Anyway, nms is a great project. keep up the good work.

  • A liability notice should do for the legal threats at least. Perhaps you should have one up and point the guy at it (no warranty or suitability for any purpose, don't sue me if you can't lock down your own server etc etc)

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