Florida DUI Law and Open Source 400
pete314 writes "A Florida court this Friday will hear arguments in a case where the accuracy of a breathalyzer is being scrutinized because the manufacturer refuses to release the source code. A state court ruling last year said that accused drunk drivers are entitled to receive details about the inner workings of the "mystical machine" that determined their guilt, and defense attorneys are now using that ruling to open up the device's source code.Is this part of a larger trend? With software bugs being a fact of life, consumers and organizations could claim that they need to be able to verify an application's source code before they accept that their calculations are accurate. Think credit card transactions, speed detecting radar guns, electronic voting machines..." Here is our previous story when this first became an issue in Florida.
I think it should be illegal to.. (Score:1, Funny)
Crazy moonbats.
Remember, ... (Score:4, Funny)
Let me get this straight (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Remember, ... (Score:5, Funny)
(calm down, mods... it's a joke!)
Re:Not Necessarily Open Source (Score:3, Funny)
So will we have to add more definitions and acronyms to the software lexicon?
Would source code you're allowed to inspect, but cannot modify, be Published Unmodifiable Source (PUS)?
How about Open Unmodifiable Computing Hardware (OUCH)?
Boolean Logic Open Unmodifiable Source Executable (BLOUSE)?
Suddenly your BLOUSE is filled with PUS...
Okay, let's just forget we went there.
- Greg
Re:Umm (Score:2, Funny)
Unreleased court transcript (Score:2, Funny)
Defense Attorney: Your Honor, this is preposterous. How can anyone sit there and expect me to think that the machine they are using is accurate. I have good information that these machines are in fact filled with raspberry jam and spit out completely random numbers. In fact, your honor, if you look hard enough you can even find a hack that will convert the machine into an mp3 player. It's quite obvious that we need to examine the source code that runs this snack dispenser or let my client go.
Judge: I'm going to ask you for the last time. Remove the foil hat, the glare off of it is really starting to bug me.
Don't drink and derive (Score:1, Funny)