I just hope that MS and others don't hit up OSS for this; the.org registry was the first to run a non Oracle\MS SQL\DB2 database (it runs/ran Postgre).
I don't want Postgre to be the underlying problem in this because it could easily destroy their reputation.
I think much of this discussion may have missed this point:
According (or most likely legally inferred) to section 1 of the Sherman Antitrust Act, a company isn't permitted to get prices directly from its competitor. -- Exchanging Information with Competitors It is important to avoid the exchange of sensitive business information with competitors without guidance from legal counsel. The exchange of price lists or prices charged to customers may violate Section 1 of the Sherman Act even though there is no agreement to fix prices, due to the natural tendency that such conduct will produce uniform or stabilized prices in the industry. Of course, you must obtain this information from some source in order to compete. But you should be able to show that you did not obtain it directly from your competitor and that you did not make your lists available to competitors.
http://www.hhrmlaw.com/antitrust.htm --
I don't know how extensive the links inbetween the company and the competitor need to be, but if the company is using the program (that you made) I would think that is more direct than indirect. If you do it and give them the prices, who knows.
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I just hope that MS and others don't hit up OSS for this; the .org registry was the first to run a non Oracle\MS SQL\DB2 database (it runs/ran Postgre).
I don't want Postgre to be the underlying problem in this because it could easily destroy their reputation.
I think much of this discussion may have missed this point:
According (or most likely legally inferred) to section 1 of the Sherman Antitrust Act, a company isn't permitted to get prices directly from its competitor.
--
Exchanging Information with Competitors
It is important to avoid the exchange of sensitive business information with competitors without guidance from legal counsel. The exchange of price lists or prices charged to customers may violate Section 1 of the Sherman Act even though there is no agreement to fix prices, due to the natural tendency that such conduct will produce uniform or stabilized prices in the industry. Of course, you must obtain this information from some source in order to compete. But you should be able to show that you did not obtain it directly from your competitor and that you did not make your lists available to competitors.
http://www.hhrmlaw.com/antitrust.htm
--
I don't know how extensive the links inbetween the company and the competitor need to be, but if the company is using the program (that you made) I would think that is more direct than indirect. If you do it and give them the prices, who knows.