Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!hplabs!hp-pcd!hplsla!jima
From: jima@hplsla.HP.COM (Jim Adcock)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c++
Subject: Re: Questions about "Free Software Foundation" (long)
Message-ID: <6590271@hplsla.HP.COM>
Date: 2 Oct 89 17:37:59 GMT
References: <6602@thor.acc.stolaf.edu>
Organization: HP Lake Stevens, WA
Lines: 16

***sigh***

...Like I said, if you want to use Gnu software for commercial work, have
what you're doing carefully checked out by a well-informed competent 
patent/intellectual-property lawyer.  Lawyers tend to read contacts
in a somewhat different light than us software types.

For that matter, no matter whose compiler you're going to use, you'd be
better off to run it by your lawyer before spending much time developing
software on it.  Better to spend a little time and money up front than
run into unexpected ownership/rollayties/headaches later.

It seems a sad fact in America that anyone can sue anybody over anything.
Unortunately this trend is catching up with the software business.  It
just makes sense to find out the "truth" [according to your own lawyer]
about a compiler before investing too heavily in it.