I read this in Jack Ganssle's 'Embedded Muse' No.277 newsletter (available here). Given that this directly contradicts the aims and spirit of the community, I wonder what people think. I should point out that in newsletter 276 there's a glowing article about the platform.

Paul.

"Just thought I would give one important caveat to your readers regarding the mBed tools (which I think are great). If you are in business you need to pay very strict attention to the Terms and Conditions on the site:

• You will be responsible for notifying to us and other users of the terms upon which you are permitting use of material that you have uploaded; such terms will always be subject to our rights to use the Data under the Agreement.

The Data Usage Policy allows using Technical Data which is defined as:

• Content which you upload and create in both public and private areas of the Website, including but not limited to source code, object code and documentation.

And the Usage of that Technical Data Allows (emphasis mine):

• To analyse materials you have uploaded and created for our own purposes and to collect and analyse information on how the Website is being used.

• To research and develop new services.

So essentially you are giving away the keys to any of your source code to ARM. That's a show stopper for many businesses that might want to fully develop proprietary applications and trade secrets using those tools. "

I'm not sure how they could operate the site without that information.

How can you fix a bug in the online build system that happens with a specific set of files/target if you can't analyse what happens when those files are built for that target?

They need the rights to analyse the code and configuration in order to see what it does to their systems and improve them in the future. There is no easy way to gain that access without also gaining the theoretical ability to view your IP.

If this is an issue you can always do offline builds.

I've seen a few of these Intellectual Property scare type posts over the last couple of years and must admit that one of them put me off mBed to start with because I was looking for a platform to develop a business idea. However, looking at all the factors across all the platforms I could find, mBed is far and away the most flexible, cost-effective, extensible, least restrictive, friendliest etc. etc.

And as for "giving away the keys", the proof of the pudding is in that it hasn't been eaten.

Perhaps I should post this as a response to the newsletter.

Paul.