Simson Garfinkel has a fundamentally good idea – mandatory labeling of software – over in TechReview. He wants a “Pure Software Act” that forces companies to label software as to what it does to your computer, much like food companies are forced to declare what their products are made of. Excellent idea – provided you can get precise and useful in the definitions in just what constitutes behavior that has to be labeled. Perhaps having an independent labeling committee – or how about making labeling something done collaboratively by the customers?
Anyway – here are the symbols he proposes: