Re: Introduction and possible thread

[Bob Deep <bobd@cssgroup.com>]

Keith Brown wrote:
> 
> Well, you're probably right about lack of assets being a deterrent to
> lawsuits. I guess at the time I was considering a shareware venture, and any
> business of any type that doesn't carry liability insurance is pretty
> foolish, and then having insurance, bang!, instantly you have deep enough
> pockets to sue. I think an open source or other licensing scheme where the
> product is free for non-commercial use and the source code is available
> would probably not have this problem, though again, I'm not sure of the
> legal principles or precedents involved. 

Another option is a LLC (Limited Libility Company).  It would limit your
libility to some value based upon your investment in the company.  You
then become just an employee of the company (well almost).  Then you
carry a minimum of insurance and let the chips fall where they may...

> I know I've seen articles recently
> in some of the usual open source news outlets about aerospace companies
> flocking to open source technology for embedded systems like avionics and
> such, so I'm sure they are satisfied they can cover their ends.

More likely because there is no clear way to pin the ownership and thus
the responsibility on one specific person or company.  But clearly the
Open Source model also has development advantages too..

> If someone really has a beef with you though, they may want to make your
> life a living hell for a few years, whether they will get anything monetary
> out of it or not. And if they *should* win a judgement against you, whether
> you have it or not doesn't make it go away.

Yea, I suppose you are right..  But if you have 10 developers in 10
states, you are not likely to get civil cases even filed because they
would have to file 10 differant suits...  Their local courts cannot try
the case w/o notifying you, and unless they can serve the papers
directly, the case is going to be dropped.  (US Law I'm told)..  Now if
you have offshore development... Things get even more unlikely...  I'd
say that if somebody wants to come after me, there is little I can do to
stop them, and little they will collect if they do.

-= Bob =-
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