Managing Legal Issues in the Software Development Life Cycle
Darene B. Lewis, H. Joseph Wen, J. Michael Tarn · Information Systems Management · 2002
Technology today is being misused to propagate copyright violations. the need for awareness becomes critical when the software developer can be held directly liable for creating devices that might be used to circumvent copyright protection technology. Current software development life cycles do not take legal issues into consideration during the development of potentially controversial products. This may result in legal complications if the laws have changed by the time the product is released. This article presents a proactive method of handling legal issues. Modifications are suggested to the existing development life cycles, which can be used to ensure compliance with current legal standards. Legal reviews create a built-in resilience buffer in the product that result in a finished product better compliant with current standards and standards that can be set in the future. This avoids liability and legal issues that might arise by following the traditional approach. A cost-benefit analysis is performed that indicates the benefit of using the suggested modifications.