Re: Should ATM service provided be held liable?

From: Walter Roberson (roberson_at_ibd.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca)
Date: 06/21/05 

Date: 21 Jun 2005 18:04:12 GMT

In article <1119369894.390318.273080@g43g2000cwa.googlegroups.com>,
 <albertleng@gmail.com> wrote:
:Should producers of software based services such as Automated Teller
:Machines (ATM) be held liable for economic injuries suffered when their
:system fails?

What kind of "economic injuries" ? Is it an "economic injury" if an
ATM takes itself out of service and the customer has to spend
4 cents on gas to get to the next one down the road? And if that
next one down the road turns out to have less expensive surcharges,
so that the total amount the user pays turns out to be -less-, then
should the owner of the first ATM be able to claim a share of the savings
on the grounds that something they did (i.e., took the ATM out of service)
saved the customer money (a value-added service) ?

There are many different forms of "economic injury", and
responsibility for the "injury" is not always clear-cut.

For example, suppose a customer shows up at 23:56 and the system is
running slow so there is a small lineup and the customer is not able to
get to the ATM to complete a deposit before midnight, thus becoming
"late" on a payment. If the system weren't slow (or if all the ATMs
at the site were working) then maybe an ATM would have been free and
the customer would have been able to complete by 23:59 . Or maybe not,
because the ATM might be right by a bar and there might be a lineup
anyhow. Has the ATM owner economically "injured" the customer by not
in some manner not -immediately- being able to serve the customer?
Or is the customer responsible for the economic injury to themself
by not taking reasonable precautions to ensure that the transaction
was complete well before the last possible moment?

Suppose a gang of theives has installed a full set of information
capturing devices -- e.g., a very thin card reader in front of the real
slot, perhaps a set of micro force sensors and data recorders to
record key-presses. The theives obtain the card and PIN information
by stealth in a way that an ordinary consumer would have had trouble
detecting. Is the ATM owner then responsible for the "economic injury"
of (say) a bounced cheque, on the grounds that the ATM owner
"made it possible" for the theft to occur by "failing to take the
reasonable security precaution" of installing an on-the-spot
DNA analyzer ? [That such devices aren't practical yet doesn't change
anything in this question.] 

-- 
Ceci, ce n'est pas une idée.

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