[plug] PHP & code

[Brian Tombleson]

Also adding my 2c worth:

If I develop software, there's two prices: one if I retain complete
ownership of code, another if they wish ownership.

My understanding is that there is a large grey area of intellectual property
rights in the middle (that only becomes clearer after much money spent on
lawyers) when you re-use parts of code for future projects.  If the customer
doesn't want to pay for the routines and formats I've developed in writing
their software, then I can sell it cheaper and then re-use the code, re-sell
the software to make the difference.

Yep, that's about 2c worth, especially since I haven't done a lot of
development lately :)

Brian Tombleson
Paradigm IT Consulting
www at ParadigmIT.com.au

----- Original Message -----
From: "Kai" <vk6ksj at iinet.net.au>
To: <plug at plug.linux.org.au>
Sent: Tuesday, August 01, 2000 1:33 PM
Subject: Re: [plug] PHP


> Sorry, I know this is off topic, but, I had to give my two cents worth.
> <snip>
> Trying to tie people in to you as the developer by witholding the source
> code sounds somewhat questionable ethically to me.
> <snip>
>
> Exactly what Microsoft did (is still doing to other companies?) to
Netscape
> in order to get IE from about 20 ish %  of market share up to what it is
> now - about 80%.
> They never realesed some vital code that Netscape needed to finish
Netscape
> for use with Win95 - consequently NS didn't get put out for retail use
until
> months after Win95 (and of course IE) was put out for retail sale and
> Netscape lost out big !
>
> /Kai
> Reply-to: vk6ksj at siwa.com.au
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Christian" <christian at amnet.net.au>
> To: <plug at plug.linux.org.au>
> Sent: Tuesday, August 01, 2000 12:59 PM
> Subject: Re: [plug] PHP
>
>
> > On Tue, Aug 01, 2000 at 12:45:22PM +0800, Bret Busby wrote:
> >
> > > Kind of, but not exactly.
> > >
> > > If a contractor does work for a client, to create an application to
run
> > > on a web server, to which the client has local access, an executable
> > > file, which cannot be easily decoded back to the PHP source code,
would,
> > > amongst other things, ensure integrity of the application (by
preventing
> > > hack programmers from experimenting; "Ooh, wow. Look what I have
found.
> > > I wonder what happens if I change these lines to make it
> > > prettier...Oops! it doesn't work anymore - call the developer, and
tell
> > > him that his application has a bug...") (apart from the contactor
> > > preventing anyone else from working on their application, and thus,
> > > ensuring that the contractor gets any required support and development
> > > work on the application).
> >
> > I'm not a lawyer but I understand that in the vast majority of
> > circumstances if you do some work for a client then they will own the
> > copyright to the work that you've done so they are entitled to the
> > source code whether or not you try to hide it from them or not.  Trying
> > to tie people in to you as the developer by witholding the source code
> > sounds somewhat questionable ethically to me.
> >
> > Regards,
> > Christian.