Contracts Contracts Contracts

An anonymous reader submits: "There's an article over at CNet about all those software contracts that are out there, and what to watch for before signing the dotted line. Using California's $95 million Oracle problem, they define what the general terms are that get used in software procurement and support contracts. While mostly geared at commercial software, one can use most of this article to target open source tech support contracts."

Comments

Things To Watch For...

[Tackhead]

> There's an article over at CNet about all those software contracts that are out there, and what to watch for before signing the dotted line. Using California's $95 million Oracle problem, they define what the general terms are that get used in software procurement and support contracts."

At least in California, the list of "things to watch for before the contract gets signed" is pretty short:

1) A $25,000 campaign donation to the Governor's re-election fund.

Verisign has optional service agreement

[BoVLB]

I have to sign up for a Verisign test server certificate every two weeks. As part of this, I have to agree to a lengthy service agreement displayed in an editable TEXTAREA. Of course, I always delete the contract text before agreeing to it.

Re:Verisign has optional service agreement

[jeffy124]

oh that's too easy. you have to edit the contract such that they owe you cold cash for clicking "I agree." Oh and dont forget the clause requiring Verizon employees to bow to you when they pass you on the street, greeting you with "Oh great one"

Contract Analysis

[Bullseye_blam]

Well, this is interesting.

I was hired this summer by a large corporation (4,000+ employees and will otherwise go nameless) to do software cost analysis on their mainframe software. They hired me precisely for this reason: to analyze each contract and summarize their software license/maintenance costs for the current year and into the future.

Thankfully, my company has been in business since the 1960's and are pros when it comes to language in the contracts. I mostly do work with mainframes, and I've found a few keys to look for:

1. Hardware upgrades - Many companies will charge additional license fees for upgrades to mainframe CPU's (often in MIPS or MSU ratings)
2. Maintenance - It is important to put some kind of "cap" on maintenance. A typical example: "maintenance shall not exceed the lesser of 15% of current license fee or 10% over the previous year." Also, it must be assumed that fees *WILL* increase the maxiumum allowable charge under the contract.
3. Usage - In a large corporate setting, companies often must pay for the use of software on multiple sites or for use of partially owned, divested, or acquired entities.

As you can see, the charges mount quickly. That's why it's essential only to run the software necessary, and nothing more.

-Bullseye

Should have Standardized EULAs

[Anonymous Coward]

In several other industries, there are "standard contracts", and I think it is well past time that became the case in the Software Industry. A specific example is the Building/Construction industry. They have "AIA" (I forget what that stands for, but it should be easy to find) standard contracts that they can call on so everyone is on the same page. A very good idea.

One reason I love Open Source software is that there are only a few licenses that I have to know about, and just by knowing the name of them, for example knowing something falls under the "GPL", or a "BSD" license, I know EXACTLY what to expect. This is of immense value to me as a user of software.

I think that property should be more heavily emphasized by the Open Source industry.

Frankly, I don't know why people put up with the EULA uncertainty and why the courts let Software companies take advantage of people in that fashion. They don't for most other products, heck even "media/content" products.

Erich Boleyn
erich@uruk.org