Archives of an entire product/project history can be invaluable in the case of infringement claims. The main reason I use so many gigs of HDD is the storage of all that archived information, but that still pales compared to the boxes of floppies and CD's that contain historical backups.
Those archives verify not only that I create my own code, but they provide a checkpoint for verifying possible cases of infringement. What it can't do is help identify a case of infringement, particularly when dealing with third parties who don't expose their code.
IP theft and industrial espionage are real risks, and sometimes the best you can do is look at different company's positions in the market and hope to spot potential infringement cases. The problem then becomes proving it, which would typically require involving law enforcement.
The issue becomes particularly thorny if the potential thief has far more dollars for lawsuits and investigation than the original developer. Even with all his fame, can you imagine Linus trying to sue someone like IBM, HP, Sun, or Microsoft for IP theft? Without the millions to potentially waste on a lawsuit (as SCO has done), what could he do even if he knew code had been stolen? What if it were only a pattern in marketing that indicated the accused was using something similar or virtually identical?
Before any one blurts "patent", note that $20K or so required just to apply for a patent, and the number of infringement cases which run through the courts every year. The deck is emphatically stacked against the individual developer, even though most new technology came out of a garage or home office, much as the original Apple computers did.
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Archives are invaluable
Posted by: msobkow on October 05, 2004 12:39 AMArchives of an entire product/project history can be invaluable in the case of infringement claims. The main reason I use so many gigs of HDD is the storage of all that archived information, but that still pales compared to the boxes of floppies and CD's that contain historical backups.
Those archives verify not only that I create my own code, but they provide a checkpoint for verifying possible cases of infringement. What it can't do is help identify a case of infringement, particularly when dealing with third parties who don't expose their code.
IP theft and industrial espionage are real risks, and sometimes the best you can do is look at different company's positions in the market and hope to spot potential infringement cases. The problem then becomes proving it, which would typically require involving law enforcement.
The issue becomes particularly thorny if the potential thief has far more dollars for lawsuits and investigation than the original developer. Even with all his fame, can you imagine Linus trying to sue someone like IBM, HP, Sun, or Microsoft for IP theft? Without the millions to potentially waste on a lawsuit (as SCO has done), what could he do even if he knew code had been stolen? What if it were only a pattern in marketing that indicated the accused was using something similar or virtually identical?
Before any one blurts "patent", note that $20K or so required just to apply for a patent, and the number of infringement cases which run through the courts every year. The deck is emphatically stacked against the individual developer, even though most new technology came out of a garage or home office, much as the original Apple computers did.
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