Re: a business model for free software

>>>>> "Andrew" == Andrew Suffield <[email protected]> writes:

    Andrew> My understanding of insider trading law is that it is
    Andrew> targetted at preventing you from doing this:

    Andrew> Buy stock

    Andrew> Issue press release reporting the good news (increasing
    Andrew> the share price)

    Andrew> Sell stock

    Andrew> Issue press release reporting the bad news (reducing the
    Andrew> share price again)

    Andrew> In other words, market manipulation. If you aren't
    Andrew> publishing information about the company (via press
    Andrew> releases or telling relatives or whatever), because you're
    Andrew> just an engineering grunt, you're usually safe. I think
    Andrew> that's what you were trying to say.

That's the blatant case, yes, but merely taking advantage of the
information (eg, if the marketing guy asks you for technical
assistance on the announcement, you realize this is going to move the
stock, and you buy) is probably still insider trading, even if it only
goes one way (up) and even if you are entirely passive about the press
release itself.

I would think that you're right, though---the hackers in a position to
get such rewards won't be in a position to get true "insider" information.

    Andrew> But I think the concept of paying people with stock can be
    Andrew> made to work without breaking such laws.

Certainly, at least in the U.S. it's done all the time.

-- 
School of Systems and Information Engineering http://turnbull.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp
University of Tsukuba                    Tennodai 1-1-1 Tsukuba 305-8573 JAPAN
               Ask not how you can "do" free software business;
              ask what your business can "do for" free software.