The American law institute´s principles on software contracts and their ramifications for software engineering research: NIER track

The American Law Institute has recently published principles of software contracts that may have profound impact on changing the software industry. One of the principles implies a non-disclaimable liability of software vendors for any hidden material defects. In this paper, we describe the new principle, first from a legal and then from a software engineering point of view. We point out potential ramifications and research directions for the software engineering community.