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Comment by mmglr | Hacker News Reader

> I always wonder whether contributor names to closed sourced software should always be transparent.

Are you implying that the developers that created this back office tool should be liable for the false police reports?

If so then then counterpoint based on having made back office apps: the individual contributor (i.e. developer) may either (1) have little to no say in what the app is doing as they are simply implementing the requirements as provided and/or (2) have no knowledge of how it might fail (e.g. when the app is integrated as part of larger business processes)

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Are police reports filed anonymously?

> Are you implying that the developers that created this back office tool should be liable for the false police reports?

In other fields, having an engineer's signature (or the lack of) means something, legally speaking. Good luck getting any kind of insurance on a new construction that wasn't inspected or built by someone licensed.

Don't the engineers in this situation have more decision making powers than developers in your typical corporate environment? In my opinion, more power would need to be given to developers before they could be held accountable in the same way as engineers on bridges or buildings.

The developer's actions are 'best effort'. Didn't the company run extensive tests to cover all possible scenarios?

If you build a system that orders coffee capsules, you want to make sure you don't order x100. But when you report 'thieves' to the authorities you open yourself up for plenty of lawsuits.. imagine the poor people being harassed by the authorities for some crime they didn't do, and will take plenty of time/money/effort to clean-up, all because company XYZ does not have a thorough UAT..

"imagine the poor people being harassed by the authorities"

Unfortunately we don't have to imagine this. This is exactly what happened (Hertz was the culprit, see link downtread)

You may not even need that word "poor" inserted in there in fact, the average person in middle america may not have the resources to to avoid a night in county jail, due to a wrongful imprisonment / accusation.

Apologies, the word "poor" didn't have to do with fanancial status. We use the word "poor" also metaphorically. Someone breaks their leg, we say "poor guy".. In also know that in Italy someone may say "povre" in the meaning pity, not poverty.

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