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I have just released my stream cipher library under public domain. Can I be hold liable from any damage that might come from its usage? I.e., if a bug in the implementation allowed an attacker to read the stream content, can I be held accountable for it?

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This is really a question for a lawyer. Also, the answer may depend on what country you're in (Brazil, according to your profile). – Caleb Jan 26 at 5:50
There is probably no lawyer in the world that can answer this question, then, because the code is freely available worldwide, so I can be sued in any jurisdiction of the world. – lvella Jan 26 at 12:38
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indeed. And worse, if you're in country A, the sender in B, the receiver in C, the hacker in D, you could conceivably be sued in any or all of those countries, the result depending on the specifics of the laws in either of them. Heard of one case where a company in country A was suing a person in country B for having pirated software on a server in country C being distributed to people in country D. Under the laws in any but country C that was illegal, the laws in country C said there was nothing wrong with hosting the stuff so the court in country B threw out the case. – jwenting Jan 26 at 13:18
@jwenting Are there public reports of the case mentioned? – Marcel Feb 1 at 9:29
that I don't know. It played out between the UK, Spain, and Italy about a decade ago. – jwenting Feb 1 at 14:00
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closed as off topic by maple_shaft Feb 1 at 20:57

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