[Cyrien]

Each person is indeed responsible for their own actions, as are the companies. Can they make sure that their software runs well and perfectly with every other piece of software out there? No.

Can and should they be held responsible for the quality of their own product running on its own? Yes.

Are they?
Why don't you check that Last EULA you agreed to on your software. It quite plainly says that they aren't.

Can a car manufacturer ensure that each of the hundreds of pieces that make up each car will work perfectly with any piece made by anyone else? No.

Can and should they be held responsible for the quality of their own product running on its own?
Yes.

Are they?
Yes.

Brief Exerpt from a EULA: Name of Company edited out.

4. Exceptions to Warranties; Disclaimers. Except for the above express limited warranty, blahblahblah disclaims any and all other warranties, express or implied, including any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for particular purpose. Blahblahblah does not warrant that the Software, its use, operation or your ability to use the Software will be uninterrupted or error-free or that all Software errors will be corrected . The warranty set forth above shall not apply to any defect or problems caused by any defect in any hardware or software used in combination with the Software, or use of the Software in execution environments not specified in the Documentation. Blahblahblah does not warrant that the Software or service will meet your requirements or that the operation of the Software will be uninterrupted or error free.

5. Limitations of Liability. In no event shall blahblahblah be liable for any damages to you or any other party whether arising out of contract or from tort including loss of data, profits or business or other special, incidental, exemplary or consequential damages, even if blahblahblah has been advised of the possibility of such loss or damages. Blahblahblah cumulative liability shall not exceed the license fee paid, if any, for use of this Software and Documentation. This section shall survive termination of this License.

Now the bold parts are intersting. So even if under the limited warranty you have damages that don't result from other software or a bad and unsupported OS and even if it was reported to them that hitting the F key five times in a row caused the software to format your harddrive even under those circumstances they aren't responsible. Even if they are responsible by some miracle of divine intervention then total damages payed by them to you shall not exceed the cost of said software.

So you lose 2 million dollars due to a fried server running software that the manufacturer knew before hand was faulty but did not inform you or do anything to correct it and it isn't their fault. So, that software company will probably go under now. Fat lot of good it does you and your now bankrupt butt that is penniless and jobless.

In fact the software people are probably still better off than you because they aren't responsible for you and hundreds of others losses and they could probably see their own collapse coming and prepared for it.

That sort of "Contract" is what I have a problem with.

Imagine signing a contract with a car dealer and in the contract it stated that even if the dealer knew that after ten miles distance it would explode and kill you he wasn't responsible.