February 19, 2004
Carp
So, long queue of blog posts to make, and serious lack of time in which to make them in (or rather to polish them into coherent sentences). The short version: writing up something for something that's covered by an NDA, whilst waiting for details on two something elses for someone that's also covered by NDA. Meanwhile, reading documentation on third thing that isn't under NDA but quite possibly should be.
I remember back when we first started. We were so proud of our very own NDA, as provided by our big scary bad lawyers. We would wield it like some kind of talisman. In turn, all those that dealt with us smote us with their pages of legal mumbojumbo. One actually signed ours, then dashed to the photocopier with it and did some manipulation, before returning with it on his letterhead for us to sign in turn. All very much a case of start-up fever. (See Cult of the NDA.)
These days, the NDAs seem like reasonably valid tools to protect some commercially sensitive stuff. Which seems fair when you have multi-billion pound turnovers, and when the slightest slip about technical direction or mention of business indiscretion could send your stock price tumbling and have your shareholders clamouring after you.
Did I mention that the place we have our offices has Japanese Koi Carp? Some of them are huge, and they all live in a pond maybe 12' x 12'. Speaking of which, it's a bloody big pond we appear to be swimming in now.
Posted by savs at February 19, 2004 8:50 PM