Re: obfuscating the code?

Jerry Stuckle wrote:
Erwin Moller wrote:
Greg Russell schreef:
In news:49ad7523$0$186$e4fe514c@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx,
Erwin Moller <Since_humans_read_this_I_am_spammed_too_much@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
typed:

Hi Greg,

First: I putted FLAME 3X around my posting to make it look less seriously. ;-)


- Is your code so horrible you must hide it from your customers?

The code is a source of income for me. I don't wish to have it copied to any
randon 3rd-party.

Fine.
But since:
1) Obfuscation won't stop anybody who has a clue (but you knew that)
and
2) If your code gets stolen, you'll need a lawyer anyway

I think it is of little use.



- Why hide it from a serverside human? Don't you trust your ISP?

Apparently you don't understand Wamp or EasyPHP. There is no ISP involved.

I used ISP as hosting provider.
You do need a server to run your Wamp on, don't you?



...
Nothing personal Greg.
I just hate copyright and code-obfuscation.

When humans are honest, so do I. When they agree that the code I give them
is for their use only, and then later I find that someone has disseminated
that code to others, it makes me wish that I had obfuscated the code so that
the person I gave it to was still a friend.

And I don't like greed and I don't like closed source.
My shrink is working on it. ;-)

Yeah, your shrink is charging you .... what, $250/hr? Talk about greed ...

I honestly wouldn't know. I never visited a shrink.
I am afraid some of my humor didn't work out well. ;-)

But by all means: Go ahead: Obfuscate your code. I just think it won't do you any good (because of the 2 points I mentioned above)

And yes: I make my living producing software. I expect to get paid for it. I also encourage my clients to use free software, but most of them only care for the 'free as in free beer' part, sadly enough.


Regards,
Erwin Moller


Erwin,

I agree 100% with your comments. Please let me add one more. They paid for the development of the code; depending on the contract, they may own the code. Even if they don't own the code, they have certain rights to the code, depending on the jurisdiction. Attempting to hold them hostage for maintenance of that code could subject the developer to legal action.

Additionally, as word of that got around (and it will), the developer is likely to find it harder to find customers.

If you write good code at a reasonable price, people will recognize that. And they will recognize that the best support will come from the developer. Sure, some will jump ship. But those are usually the ones who will try to get the code de-obfuscated, anyway.



One more point - if they "stole" your code - and hosted on their server - how would you ever know it? Unless you get called to fix something they broke, the odds are 1B:1 you would ever know...
.

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