[prev in list] [next in list] [prev in thread] [next in thread] 

List:       firewalls-gc
Subject:    Re: Check Point response to Mossad rumor`
From:       Mike Shaver <shaver () neon ! ingenia ! ca>
Date:       1997-07-10 10:43:04
[Download RAW message or body]

Thus spake Chris Inskeep:
> Is it common for security application software vendors to license copies
> of their source code

I don't know how you'd define `common', but it's not unheard of.
I suspect it's similar to good documentation: not everyone produces
it, but it'd be nice if they did. =)

> See, that is where we're in a different ballpark from Sun (or the
> other UNIX vendors) and Microsoft (DOES Bill sell source licenses
> for NT? -- I'd think so, but don't really know for sure.)

Microsoft does sell source licenses, and also has an educational-user
source license programme.

> Are we asking more of the king than is standard practice in the
> security products software industry?

I don't actually have a problem with them not releasing source any
more than I have a problem with Jeep not selling the Grand Cherokee
with a standard transmission; I'd like the product more if they did,
but it's their product to sell.

The problem I have is with them insisting that I (as a generic
consumer-with-a-preference) don't really need it, or that they
_shouldn't_ release it for IP/security/`industry-standard' reasons.

Mike

-- 
#> Mike Shaver (shaver@ingenia.com) Ingenia Communications Corporation 
#>                   Welcome to the technocracy.
#>                                                                     
#> "you'd be so disappointed
#>              to find out that the magic was not
#>                          really meant for you" - OLP

[prev in list] [next in list] [prev in thread] [next in thread]