Software source code escrow agents hold source code in the event that the creator of the source code refuses (or is unable) to release the source code to the user of specialized software if that software no longer functions, or under certain other circumstances.

'With open source software, it should be more straightforward to find somebody to step in and fix it up,' says Gill. 'Although there are many more people who are used to working on Linux systems than some esoteric piece of software. But again, you have that greater community of potential support.'

Software hoarding

In software coding, the idea of so-called 'copyleft' relates mainly to the provision to modify and improve code and freely distribute it. The concept apparently arose when the founder of the free software movement, Richard Stallman, was working on a piece of software that another company asked to use. Stallman agreed to supply it with a public domain version of his work, the company improved the program, but when Stallman asked to access these improvements, the company refused to show them to him. In order to prevent such 'software hoarding', many open source licences specify that the author of a derived and modified work can only distribute such works under the same or an equivalent licence.

It's this 'business unfriendly' licence, the GPL, that Microsoft Corp. dislikes so fervently. Richard Waid, technical director of IOPEN Technologies Ltd., part of the Effusion Group, says Microsoft doesn't like the fact that the GPL requires people who modify code to release their modifications to the code. 'What's preferable to them, and you can see why, is to be able to modify my code then sell it without having to offer me the modifications in return.'