The 777 is the first American airliner with fly-by-wire. I'd love to see how Boeing handled the legal risk for their software systems. In today's tort environment, one thing is nearly certain - whenever a Boeing airliner crashes anywhere for any reason, they can expect to get sued. That being the case, when (not if) the first 777 crashes, you can expect to hear tort lawyers claiming the problem was with the fly-by-wire software. A 777 is a big plane capable of carrying upwards of 400 people in some configurations. In a fatal accident where everyone was killed, Boeing could easily be facing a billion dollars in liability lawsuits from a single crash. That being the case, I wonder how they developed their software, knowing full well that they would have to defend their development practices in court one day.

From what I've been able to read about Boeing's approach, the fly-by-wire system may not be a full replacement form their traditional hydraulics flight controls. Their goal was that if the FBW system failed, the plane would still be flyable just like a 767.