FW: Attempted theft warning.

[Richard Kreiss]

-----Original Message-----
From: filepro-list-bounces+rkreiss=verizon.net at lists.celestial.com
[mailto:filepro-list-bounces+rkreiss=verizon.net at lists.celestial.com] On
Behalf Of Jeff Harrison
Sent: Monday, August 30, 2010 2:54 PM
To: filepro-list at lists.celestial.com
Subject: RE: FW: Attempted theft warning.

--- On Mon, 8/30/10, John Esak <john at valar.com> wrote:

> From: John Esak <john at valar.com>
> Subject: RE: FW: Attempted theft warning.
> To: filepro-list at lists.celestial.com
> Cc: "'Timothy R Barr'" <tim.barr at 21appr.com>
> Date: Monday, August 30, 2010, 12:53 PM
> 
[snip]
> 
> Tim is worried that the way he determined how to arrive at their 
> "data" will be seen by whoever is going to be engaged next.  That is 
> like giving away his 25 years of experience, and his father's 50 and 
> his grandfathers 70....
[snip]

Do you mean that Tim considers the data in the filepro map file to
confidential/proprietary/copyrightable?  I guess this could be generalized
as "can you copyright metadata"?  I'm sure some legal types out there can
expound on this.

Still, though, even if the customer respected the copyright on the map, I
can't imagine that it would be illegal for them to derive their own map
based on the data...  An who is to say if they actually used the map to do
this or not?  It would be difficult to prove one way or the other.

Jeff Harrison
jeffaharrison at yahoo.com
Author of JHImport and JHExport.

Non-legal opinion,  data is that which the client inputs into the data
structure supplied by the programmer.  The source code, data dictionaries
and output formats are the work product of the programmer.

A data dump to the client in some form, ie a test file or csv file should be
sufficient.  One for each file.  Nothing says the client is entitles to know
how all of this data is related.

Years ago we had a tough negotiation with a prospective client  who demanded
that source code for an application be kept on file with his attorney.  The
contract was signed, and the company I was working for dutifully delivered
source code, boxes and boxes of printed source code.  Also, the contract did
not specify that it had be updates, only that it had to be the code
delivered at the time of the contract.

That is the sticky question, what does the contract say.  Of course, as any
good lawyer will tell you. The contract is the starting point for any
lawsuit.

Richard Kreiss
GCC Consulting