[DavidZ]

Simon

I have not seen the API contract so I cannot give you a definitive answer. However there are so many precedents set that would contradict such a clause. Just look at all the code that people write for Microsoft Office products. Access, Excel, Word and others all use VBA and all can be called in a similar way to how the API works. Nobody is suggesting that these types of applications could possibly belong to Microsoft.

It is also a question of how you write applications such as these. Blackbaud, Microsoft, whoever supply an API, an interface to their code. You are writing your own code that you have rights over against their interface. You are not writing or editing their code.

Of course laws vary between countries and so do contracts but I would have real difficulty in believing that Blackbaud would have any right to my code or my client's code.

David