Comment by apple_innocent
5 years ago
"For years, they said no, because they were worried about the liability of accidentally blocking something that wasn't a phishing site."
Can anyone explain how a web browser author could be liable for using a blacklist. Once past the disclaimer in uppercase that precedes every software install, past the Public Suffix (White)List that browsers include, how do you successfully sue the author of a software program, a web browser, for having a dommainname blacklist. Spamhaus was once ordered to pay $11 million for blacklisting some spammers, but that did not involve a contractual relationship, e.g., a software license, between the spammers and Spamhaus.
I think the situation is actually exactly like the Spamhaus case you describe: it wouldn't be the browser user that sues, but the blocked website's owner. The website's owner need not have accepted any kind of agreement from the browser maker in order to be harmed by the blocklist.
Perhaps the website would sue the author of the list.
That does not explain why this comment suggests a browser author was afraid to use the list.
The browser author could easily require the list author to agree that the browser author has no obligations to the list author if the list author gets sued by a website, and the list author must idemnify the browser author if the browser author is named in any suit over the list. The list author must assume all the risk.