OK, I won't sue you -- at least not today
Charles Cooper Former Executive Editor / News
Charles Cooper was an executive editor at CNET News. He has covered technology and business for more than 25 years, working at CBSNews.com, the Associated Press, Computer & Software News, Computer Shopper, PC Week, and ZDNet.
Sybase finally decided it wasn't worth going after a researcher for NGS Software in the United Kingdom who had discovered buffer overflow and denial-of-service vulnerabilities in the companyÂ’s software last year.
CEO John Chen later told me there were misinterpretations on both sides. He added that Sybase had no problem with researchers finding code flaws in the company's products. All he wanted was a chance to first get a patch into the hands of customers.
But Sybase helped ignite this tempest by jumping ugly with NGS, and making threatening noises about breaches in the software license agreement. That was a silly idea from the get-go.