I’m still about 4 or 5 episodes behind on my Fox Show listening…
So I started with the most recent show with John Petersen’s views on legal issues. This is an important issue and one all developers need to be grappling with. In my experience the smaller shops tend to put legal issues in the ‘that’s for the big software companies’ basket, but this is ofcourse a big mistake. And what a different world it would be today if Bill G hadn’t completely wrapped up that MS-DOS license issue completely when he was still a two-person setup…
Andrew asks John at the start of the interview about the business case for VFP. John’s response is useful (as was Andrew’s helpful counter). I know some would dismiss John’s thoughts given he has some history in VFP circles <g>, but that would be to lose the benefit of a viewpoint held by many in IT management positions in corporates. We need to have a good reply to those kinds of claims if we are to grow, let alone continue.
I wish I’d listened to this before I wrote my thoughts on the Surge a few days ago, as there are issues of perception that need to be countered.
However the most important point is his urging to protect the stuff you do, whether with patents, trademarks of other legal facilities. (Makes me nervous of all the ‘cool ideas that are gonna turn me into the next Google’ I have told people already <s>)
Download the latest Fox Show from here: http://www.thefoxshow.com
