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Give us your newborn child, says IBM. Well, not quite... but...

News that IBM needs more names and addresses on its mailing lists - the news comes in the form of an announcement that "IBM today announced a free Web application development tool made in IBM labs with a simple user-interface to allow people without technical skills in small businesses and other organisations to create applications that solve daily tasks."

I have to follow up this sort of mouse-trap cheese. So I logged in to the web site, because it said I had to:

Users can start building their own applications with this free IBM technology by going to: http://services.alphaworks.ibm.com/devengage/. 

No, you can't just download it! First you have to register. And it was at this point that I got cold feet.

For a start, it told me it wanted my home address. I clearly specified that I live in the UK, and it clearly says that I don't have to provide that unless I'm in Canada or the US. (I gave a fake address, of course!).

And that got me into this:

By entering into this Agreement You grant IBM a perpetual, worldwide and irrevocable license under all intellectual property rights (including copyright) to use, copy, distribute, sublicense, display, perform and prepare derivative works of any information that You provide to IBM, including but not limited to arrangements, visualizations, and selections of information, and feedback and suggestions You provide to IBM. For any information You provide to IBM that originates from a third party, You state that You are not aware of anyone who holds intellectual property or other rights, such as rights to privacy, that could prevent IBM from exercising the rights listed in this paragraph.

Run away!