[A_D_E_P_T]

I don't want to make any claims, though. I'd be much happier in a position where I'm totally unable to make claims. (And don't have to deal with the insurance industry.)

I'd even pay good money for (de facto-) fake insurance, just so mandates and overly-bureaucratic clients/partners leave well enough alone.

[dagw]

I don't want to make any claims, though.

I think you're missing the point of why these "overly-bureaucratic clients" are insisting on insurance. I don't want you to have insurance to keep you safe, I need you to have insurance to keep me safe. When the widget you built for me breaks and damages my customer and I end up owing them €1m, I want to be able to recoup at least some of that cost from you. It won't be you making a claim on your insurance, but me (or rather my insurance company)

And as someone who used to be at one of those "overly-bureaucratic clients", we not only required (and checked) that you had insurance, but also that your insurance coverage was actually high enough for project in question.

[A_D_E_P_T]

> When the widget you built for me breaks and damages my customer and I end up owing them €1m, I want to be able to recoup at least some of that cost from you.

I'm not sure that follows.

I build something, send it to you. You integrate it, test it, make it production-ready, and ship it. If something breaks in testing, that's pretty normal, and it would be on me to fix -- and presumably contractual agreements would preclude damages at that stage.

If something breaks after you ship it to your own customer, that really ain't my responsibility. If you try to make it my responsibility, it would be a matter for the courts and not a matter for insurance. If you're looking for a quick payout from insurance, or if you think that insurance companies are less motivated to defend claims in court, that's reasonable -- but it's by no means necessary, and certainly not a social good. Insurance sets up incentive problems that ought to be avoided.

[dagw]

it would be a matter for the courts and not a matter for insurance

The specifics of the contract is besides the point. Taking you to court is meaningless unless you also have insurance, since if you're a freelancer or small company there is no way to get any money out of you. You'll just declare bankruptcy and be on your way and we'd still be stuck with the bill, even if it was you that screwed up. You having insurance is insurance for your customers that they have some chance of recompense if you screw them in some sort of way.