Thanks for the kind words, Matt.

I seem to recall an even earlier email exchange, where I thought you were a Provo engineer and I corrected your interpretation of the GPL. Your response was polite but firm, and my reaction when I read it was... appropriately sheepish :)

off-topic perhaps, but I am usually saddened to see that law becomes a necessarily evil in science (programming in this case). Why can't we just be? Marketing is another evil, but I'll save that for another day. There's one company whose programming has been abysmal; the only merits were litigious and related to advertising (often taking the form of bashing the rival).

*sigh*

Okay, enough ranting... need more coffee.

I couldn't agree more, Roy. Going to law school made me more of an "anti-law" person that I think I otherwise would have been.

In this case, however, I think inside counsel is useful for helping to think through innovative ways to license/open technology. So, it's not about how best to sue someone, but how best to give away great technology (to the detriment of one's competitors and the delight of one's customers, of course :-).