Profiteers

[Will McGonegal]

> Date: Mon, 26 Feb 2001 16:30:04 -0500
> From: Jeff Webb <mustang at ufl.edu>
> Subject: Re: Profiteers
> 
> Shannen and Steve,
> 
> Thanks for taking the time to clarify things.  Your replies seem pretty
> reasonable.  Now let me take a moment to explain the motivation for my
> previous post.
> 
> I felt the need to respond to Shannen's message for several reasons.
> First of all, it seemed misdirected (unless Will has committed some
> deeds that I am not aware of).  Will made what I thought was a
> reasonable observation, and it was met with a pretty harsh response.  I
> assume the tone of the message was directed at profiteers and not at
> Will personally.

I'm don't believe that Shannen was directing his message at me.  I read his
reaction to my message and thought there were a lot of good points, and it
certainly was though provoking.  The other respondents to this thread have also
made good comments.  Jeff makes some good points too, and I have to agree when
he says that if you don't state your terms up front it's difficult to say they
where broken.

I have experienced sharing ideas with a company before only to have them ditch
us (6 or 7 years ago now-- not EFI related).  We entered into a technology
transfer agreement (all legal with lawyers and contracts) with terms that
stipulated as to how we were to be compensated.  Their lawyers managed to find a
loop-hole (re-naming and slightly altering the intended application) so that
they could get out of the agreement without us receiving proper compensation. 
The had received a lot of info from us, fortunately they did not realize that
there was a lot more to the system then mechanical design and we had not
divulged the my software for the control system to them yet.  They thought that
would be easy to do on there own, HA!.  They even had the balls to ask us to
give them a price quote on some work to do for them after this.  We have much
better agreements now with other companies.  One conciliation is that the
company that screwed us over never did get the system to work.

Although the situation in the above experience is different in that it was a
business situation, my point is that I understand how people can feel jaded when
they share information and see someone benefit from it and not give something
back.  This whole list is dependent on people sharing their information,
thoughts and views.  I know reading the list has helped me become more
knowledgeable about several topics of interest to me.  I try to contribute
(technically most of the time!) whenever I can in an effort to try to give
something back.  You have to realize that people have differing moral standards
and unfortunately some people treat the Internet as an information exchange free
for all.  That's something I keep in mind when I share information on the
internet.  Even with a solid contract you may get nothing for your efforts (sad,
but true).  It's a bonus when you do get something!

Will McGonegal
Electrical Engineer
Emissions Research and Measurement Division
Environment Canada
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