I believe a better option would be to have the company who the developer works for obtain the certificate, this would be seen as another feather in the cap of a companywho create software in any shape or form, for those who develop privately, maybe there should be a regulator they can register with who would provide code verification services who would then vouch for the indivual developer.
The only problem you then face is whether these services are chargeable and if so, how much, as the previous commentor said, you are inevitably going to price out the smaller developers who are trying to get their foot in the door. On the other hand it may help squeeze out the malicious developers and criminals who operate out in the wild.
If this is done, the other problem would be to get mass adoption that only programs/applications with the seal of approval should be purchased/downloaded etc...
Marc Wilson - 14 years ago
You may have the best of intentions, but from a developer point of view this looks very like: "We'd like to sell you some digital certificates/other certification". It's unenforceable- unlilke medicine, you can practice software development anywhere. If you raise the barrier for software development in this way, you will achieve two things:
1) A large number of smaller developers will go under;
2) More and more software development will move to low-regulation regimes.
Actually, there is a third:
3) Tens of thousands of developers will hate Sophos.
I believe a better option would be to have the company who the developer works for obtain the certificate, this would be seen as another feather in the cap of a companywho create software in any shape or form, for those who develop privately, maybe there should be a regulator they can register with who would provide code verification services who would then vouch for the indivual developer.
The only problem you then face is whether these services are chargeable and if so, how much, as the previous commentor said, you are inevitably going to price out the smaller developers who are trying to get their foot in the door. On the other hand it may help squeeze out the malicious developers and criminals who operate out in the wild.
If this is done, the other problem would be to get mass adoption that only programs/applications with the seal of approval should be purchased/downloaded etc...
You may have the best of intentions, but from a developer point of view this looks very like: "We'd like to sell you some digital certificates/other certification". It's unenforceable- unlilke medicine, you can practice software development anywhere. If you raise the barrier for software development in this way, you will achieve two things:
1) A large number of smaller developers will go under;
2) More and more software development will move to low-regulation regimes.
Actually, there is a third:
3) Tens of thousands of developers will hate Sophos.