On Thursday 13 March 2003 07:45 am, Jimmie Houchin wrote:
> Apple needs absolutely no reason to be antagonistic and refuse our
> requests. It is within their corporate ability.
>
> The question would then still be,
> How can they hurt us from where we are?

Couldn't they decide to change the license in some other way (or even 
decide that the code should no longer be available)? (I don't know 
whether a license is irrevocable or not).

And it seems especially dangerous to me to approach Disney lawyers 
when they haven't publicly asserted any ownership over the code (I 
don't know what was in the contracts that Squeak Central signed with 
them, though).

You may remember that Disney have even tried to charge a day care 
center for its murals featuring Mickey and Pluto.

In the story at
http://cincinnati.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/stories/2002/10/07/focus2.html
there is a telling quote:

> Indeed, among intellectual property attorneys, there is a saying,
> "Don't mess with the mouse."

The usual responses I've seen from lawyers tend to be conservative, 
and big US companies often seem to be run by lawyers more than 
businessmen.

I think it's significant that Alan is urging us to "let sleeping dogs 
lie".

-- 
Ned Konz
http://bike-nomad.com
GPG key ID: BEEA7EFE