Hey!

Thanks for accepting my invite. Don't worry, this will be short. I have a places to be, people to... educate. So I'll have to run soon.

I took the liberty and ordered for both of us. Steak & salad. Good, right?

See, I'm with the Company. Yeah, ...that one. We serve your coffee, we make your cereal, we provide you with social entertainment and all this other boring stuff. I do, however, always find it amusing that the same company can produce toothpaste and at the same time be a supplier of network cable for a city.

Sign of times, no?

There's this interesting initiative Company is doing I'd like to share with you. Some time ago they hired 100s of the engineers. Best of the best, true geniuses. They worked on exactly two tasks. First, they optimized almost ad absurdum marshalling and de-marshalling for everyone's favorite data format. Second, they implemented it in every single programming language known to a person Have you seen u-n-m – c-j-c – 2-0-x-x in your code somewhere, perhaps? Or maybe you recall c-j-c in serializer logic? That's theirs.

There is a great joke about their work and let me tell you. We are BOTH going to have a LAUGH! The c-j-c part. Some people were guessing, but no one got it. It's abbreviation for "Creutzfeldt-Jakob Code". The mad cows disease, but code. Get it? Don't worry, it'll come to you eventually.

The code, though - maybe you've seen it but the truth is - we NEVER really released it. It just leaked. Happens, right? Big corporations be sooo clumsy! Well, we at least got it notarized and licensed, like 10 years ago, so no big deal! Disaster averted, phew!

But here I am mumbling about some old projects of ours while I wanted to meet to talk about YOUR company. Terrific company. Great financial results. Fantastic product. We, and I'm absolutelly sincere AND AUTHORIZED to tell this, are really proud! It couldn't get any better.

Yet we just couldn't notice that you built your little empire using our code. Unlicensed one. And we're deeply hurt you didn't reach out to fix this.

I'm sorry? You used code generator, the one that everyone use? I bet you wish it'd generate you a legal license with it as well, ha ha.

Anyway - don't worry, we'll figure it out. We ALWAYS do. Best case scenario you will join Company's family. We look for our own. You can share REASONABLE amount of the profits and we won't come after you. Fair deal!

You don't agree? Well, we CAN take it to the court if you want, but do we REALLY need to draw blood? It might take DECADES before it ends and you can imagine what this kind of PR do to the profits.

And the stress. It's a killer, you know. So many people I knew succumbed to stress. Years of ruthless legal battle DRAINED THEM DRY. Totally not worth it. Think about your family for Pete's sake!

I see you haven't touched your food. Not a fan of a steak I suppose. Or maybe you're worried about mad cow's disease? No reason, let me assure you. I have a guarantee from the generator and that's something WE CAN LEAN ON.

This is work of fiction. It never happened and never will. Probably.