Amen, brother Charles, even as a ISV I totally agree. Besides, I think we should gave a API to Plug into, hence no need for code. Btw most auditors don't have a clue why the want source besides they want it ...
Scott ford www.identityforge.com from my IPAD On May 8, 2014, at 8:44 PM, Charles Mills <[email protected]> wrote: >> how does your scenario differ from hiring a new programmer and telling him > he has to support an application that has been around for years > > Obviously we could invent hypothetical scenarios which were the same or > different. I think it is at least plausible that in your scenario there > would be some documentation and appropriate tools such as compilers, and > perhaps in-house skills. ("Your" scenario application is written in COBOL > and the shop has COBOL programmers; the escrowed application is written in > FORTRAN and there are no FORTRAN skills in-house.) But Yes, best case, your > scenario is similar to identical. But of course there is no preceding > drawn-out court fight and hopefully no crisis (unlike "it blew up and we > finally figured out the vendor is out of business"). > >> they were taken to court by a competitor, and the competitor won the case > > Interesting. The competitor must have been a licensee, with an escrow > agreement, and the vendor must have breached the support agreement. Unusual > to say the least. > >> bankruptcy is typically financially oriented. Contract language for > "real" property ... > > Bankruptcy is bankruptcy. Software is intellectual property. Bankruptcy > basically trumps contracts. If I were a creditor of a bankrupt software > company I would be in court arguing that the source code should be sold to > the highest bidder to help satisfy the software company's debts to me and > others, not given away due to an executory agreement. What would the court > say? We would be paying lawyers to find out, wouldn't we? (Meanwhile, the > poor customer's critical processing is still waiting on a bug fix.) > > Escrow may work in certain circumstances. I think it is problematic to the > point of having little benefit. Your mileage may vary. > > Charles > > -----Original Message----- > From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:[email protected]] On > Behalf Of Mitch > Sent: Thursday, May 08, 2014 5:12 PM > To: [email protected] > Subject: Re: Vendor Source Code > > Charles, > > My first question is this: how does your scenario differ from hiring a new > programmer and telling him he has to support an application that has been > around for years, but none of the previous developers or support staff are > with the company any longer? However, your point about what happens if and > when you do have to get access to the code from a no longer existent vendor. > This is true, but also I would be surprised if any company would put > something into a production environment without first testing it, whether it > is if the vendor product "blows up" or something changes in the client's > environment. > > I represented a vendor (who shall remain unnamed) and a situation happened > where they had their product code in escrow, they were taken to court by a > competitor, and the competitor won the case. The vendor then had to make > their current version of their product available as per contract. A end > user organization should ensure that any escrowed source is always the > latest version as per contract stipulations. > > Lastly, bankruptcy is typically financially oriented. Contract language for > "real" property is handled differently than financial obligations. Again, > I, unfortunately, learned this first hand. BTW, IMHO, any vendor that is > worth their salt will keep their various versions held in escrow up to > date. > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, > send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
