CompuServe Messages

Will, First off… long time no see! Where the heck are you these days??! I agree, that's an interesting idea. The question is, do you think any industry association would be willing to go for it? Particularly if the responsibility extends to making the code available to all registered end users, the cost of administering the escrow agreement is high. An agreement to make it available to another supporting entity is reasonable, though… bearing in mind the legal issue I raised which makes the whole software-escrow arrangement less secure than it might appear. How does one identify the alternate supporting entity, though? Is the industry association capable of doing so (probably not unless they have some technical staff of their own capable of doing the evaluation)? Is the original vendor responsible for that? Does it just go up to the highest bidder when the time comes (which could be a competitor who simply wants to buy the product and shove it in a safe, "forcing" customers to switch to a different product over time)? -Bill