Your enterprise customer wants source code escrow.
Procurement asks for an escrow clause, and the usual answer is a sealed copy with a provider nobody has checked on since. 42escrow connects to your repository once and deposits encrypted copies on schedule, which your customer verifies by checksum without reading a line.
Your customer gets proof. You keep your code.
How 42escrow holds your code
liveWhy the usual sealed copy is worth less than it looks, and what a deposit looks like when somebody checks it every day.
Dr. Christof Strasser, LL.M. (Harvard), Rechtsanwalt, admitted in Austria, England & Wales and New York.
Confidentiality here is not a contract term that can be waived in a settlement. It is a professional duty under the Rechtsanwaltsordnung, supervised by the Vienna Bar.
Required by law for the practice of law in Austria, in place at all times.
If the escrow agent dies or can no longer practice, the terms appoint an interim administrator and, failing agreement, the President of the Vienna Bar names a successor. The deposit does not depend on one person staying available.
A dated record for every deposit, naming the commit and the checksum — sent to both sides within five business days.
Deposit record
Northwind Software GmbH
northwind/platform-core
Module
Contract sheet
Pulled
Branch · tag
Commit
Package checksum — SHA-256
Files
Size
Next pull
Delivered to
The problem
The escrow clause is in most license agreements. It rarely gets implemented — and when it does, there is a disk somewhere that nobody has checked on since the day it was handed over.
Conventional escrow
42escrow
Who it is for
For software vendors
Your customer's clause, met without extra work: connect once, no manual uploads. Your code stays encrypted, under a lawyer's duty of confidentiality. Your customer sees checksums, not source.
For licensees
A verified copy, not an assurance. Check the version and the checksum yourself, at any time, and receive the code through the agreed release.
For counsel
Agreed trigger events, a documented release, a tripartite agreement drafted by lawyers.
For investors
A verified deposit answers the continuity question in due diligence, and protects portfolio companies that depend on a single vendor.
Why a law firm
42escrow is a service of 42law. The trustee is a Rechtsanwalt — an attorney admitted in Austria, and in England & Wales and New York — not a service provider. Escrow used to be the business of lawyers and notaries, until code moved to GitHub and a sealed envelope stopped making sense. 42escrow puts the two back together.
What a lawyer adds
Confidentiality
An Austrian Rechtsanwalt is bound to secrecy by law (§ 9 RAO). Your code is protected by professional law, not only by a clause in a contract.
Oversight
A breach has disciplinary consequences under Austrian professional rules, not just commercial ones.
Liability
Every Austrian Rechtsanwalt carries mandatory professional liability insurance. There is cover behind the promise.
Your trustee
ViennaAttorney in Vienna. Software contracts and transactions since 2005.
A few lines are enough. Tell us who is on each side and what the license covers.
Get in touch