CompuServe Messages

Fond as I am of Will's vision (always have been, really), I think you're right to question if this is association stuff. On the other hand, it *is* a significant bonus for the firm that is trying to break into the market. Bill, you mentioned (I believe) the impracticality of this sort of agreement on a smaller basis. If you were speaking of insisting Aldus or Ashton-Tate sign an escrow agreement, I see your point (and skip ahead five paragraphs). But in the market that most troubles me, where a client spends about $5-10K for the initial product with $2K for support every year, do you still consider that an impractical protection, and if so, why? I'll just add that knowing the source code was in a third party's hand would make me a lot less reluctant to get into a deal. I realize how limited the protection is, in fact, but I think it would provide a similar encouragement to the vendor to honor the original agreement.