On 2017-03-02, at 07:16, Pommier, Rex wrote:
>
> The company will remain nameless, but several years ago I was dealing with a
> vendor (who will remain nameless) who had pretty much the same thing. They
> already had their software in escrow and were willing to provide source if
> they went out of business. We asked them, and they responded affirmatively -
> and put it in the contract - that if their company was sold to a large
> software vendor in New York that we would get their source code. Fortunately
> that never happened but some vendors are willing to go that step.
>
The city of Denver had such a contract with a local TV cable franchise
which was acquired ... and acquired by Warner, so Denver could have,
if it chose, blocked the Time-Warner merger. If the lawyers were good
enough.
You could imagine a contract for perpetual maintenance at a fixed
price (CoLA adjustment?), but hardly a contract guaranteeing continued
upgrades. And if a vendor chooses to sunset a product, then offers
a competing similar product with enhancements ("Change the name and
raise the price!") ... how good are your lawyers?
-- gil
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