In a hypothetical world in which SaaS has taken over the market, and 3rd-party clients are forbidden by virtue of license agreements, interoperability becomes impossible.
Imagine if Windows Server had been SaaS; Samba would never exist, Mac OS X and Linux couldn't operate in a Windows environment.
Where property law falls down is when we consider what it is you're selling -- access to a service, or a fully controlled end-to-end service agreement where you assert control over both the client and server.
If it's the latter, does this create a healthy market, or does it create something that could never exist before: the ability to create a "natural monopoly" on an individual customer level. That is, once people are invested in your platform, the cost to compete for that person is so high that it creates a nearly unassailable barrier to entry?
Pre-SaaS, if someone wanted to compete with Microsoft Office, they could invest the effort supporting the Office file format to ease customer transition.
Post-SaaS, if Google Docs, Office 365, et al disallow data/API access to third-party clients, supporting your competitors' existing customers becomes impossible.
Imagine if Windows Server had been SaaS; Samba would never exist, Mac OS X and Linux couldn't operate in a Windows environment.
Where property law falls down is when we consider what it is you're selling -- access to a service, or a fully controlled end-to-end service agreement where you assert control over both the client and server.
If it's the latter, does this create a healthy market, or does it create something that could never exist before: the ability to create a "natural monopoly" on an individual customer level. That is, once people are invested in your platform, the cost to compete for that person is so high that it creates a nearly unassailable barrier to entry?
Pre-SaaS, if someone wanted to compete with Microsoft Office, they could invest the effort supporting the Office file format to ease customer transition.
Post-SaaS, if Google Docs, Office 365, et al disallow data/API access to third-party clients, supporting your competitors' existing customers becomes impossible.