Re: Who owns the database - client or software vendor?

[Rob Berendt <rob@xxxxxxxxx>]

This can all be overridden in a contract.  I've seen 
packages that gave their files meaningless names, the 
description of all the files was 'Copyright me'.  I don't 
know what you mean by 'layout of those files'.  Are you 
assuming that they were built with DDS and they didn't 
give you the source?  Source is often spelled out in a 
contract.  Trust me, I've been burned. However, even if 
you did have the source and they built the files with on 
the fly SQL statements, you'd be in for some fun.  If that 
is the case IBM has a command called DSPFFD.  There are 
utilities.  We downloaded, and enhanced one from a magazine 
called DSPLYT.  These don't recreate DDS, but they do tell 
you the layout.   Or did the vendor do something really 
weird like use single field files and break it apart in the 
code, (otherwise known as internally defined)?  Even worse, 
ignored DB2 and stored everything in the IFS in their own 
custom format.  You know, it could always be worse.





colin.williams@technocrats.co.uk on 04/04/2000 12:15:55 PM
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Subject:        Who owns the database - client or software vendor?

If a software vendor supplies a system to a client, who owns the
database, the client or the vendor?

And if the client has rights to the data, does he not also have rights
to acces that data using tools that are independent of the vendor?

Does this also mean he has rights to the layout of those files in the
database, so that he can actually use the tools on the data?

Without the layout, the database is nothing right?
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