Technologists held responsible for tech abuse?

from the let's-sue-somebody dept.
A Salon article looks at the disturbing possibility that software programmers, and by extension possibly other technologists, could be held legally responsible for the abusive purposes to which their creations could be put, including open source software:
"People have always said that the law doesn't matter because technology will outpace it," [lawyer] Granick says. "The idea is that you'll never be able to stop things like Napster or its new iterations — the horse is out of the barn. But the law is a lot more powerful than people realize. It has the ability to severely retard or stop these things entirely."
Gee, maybe we should hold everyone legally liable for everything that happens which has any connection to something they ever did. Or talked about doing. Or thought about doing.