[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
It's called Disaster Preparedness.....of course a disaster can come in various forms. Any company
worth their salt has one in place where they keep vital records, software and databases off-site and
in multiple locations.
When I was negotiating contracts for telecommunications companies, we
had two reasons for insisting on a code escrow clause.
The first was as mentioned, disaster prep. This, however, was not our
main concern. Rather, it was that the company would go bankrupt and the
source code would be tied up in receivership or bankruptcy litigation
and during that time we would not have software support. Hence, we
required suppliers to agree that in those circumstances, the purchaser
would receive access to the escrowed source code (via a non-exclusive
license) for the purpose of support and bug fixes. In order to make this
work, the code had to be in the hands of a 3rd party escrow agent, as
leaving it with the developer would not short-circuit access problems,
since we would be just another contract claimant in the bankruptcy
court. But, the access provisions could be enforced against the third
party escrow agent without getting tangled up with the bankruptcy
proceeding.
Or, at least that was the theory. Fortunately, we never had to implement
this process.
Jack K8ZOA
www.cliftonlaboratories.com
_______________________________________________
Elecraft mailing list
Post to: Elecraft@mailman.qth.net
You must be a subscriber to post to the list.
Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.):
http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft
Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm
Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com
