Inside Report (1)

January 9, 1981

Banker to would-be borrower: "Sorry, we have no money for ideas today. Now, if it was a new car you wanted . . ." Bankers have always felt most comfortable financing tangible assets, says a market analyst in the electronics field. But software, where most of the money in the computer world is going these days, is harder for them to "get their arms around." Financing ideas -- "and software is basically ideas" -- makes them edgy , he says.

Still another problem for the computer industry arises in court: Lawyers complain that many judges have difficulty sorting out the subtleties of comp lex electronic distinctions.m