RE: [PHP] Genus who came up with "Self Destruct Code" & "Copy Pro tection"

Well put for those that develop under a contract for someone else. "Rules to live by" for that arena. However, the person who develops products for sale, using PHP, needs to find other means of protecting their intellectual property. A solution seems to be available at a relatively hefty price. Can't help but wonder how ZEND is doing financially? Also wonder if the Open Source movement will have something like ZEND's "Encoder/Accelerator" in the near future? Warren Vail Tools, Metrics & Quality Processes (415) 667-7814 Pager (877) 774-9891 215 Fremont 02-658 -----Original Message----- From: Jason Soza [mailto:solja@gci.net] Sent: Tuesday, May 07, 2002 3:53 PM To: Vail, Warren Cc: 'dfreeman@outbackqld.net.au'; php-general@lists.php.net Subject: RE: [PHP] Genus who came up with "Self Destruct Code" & "Copy Pro tection" Following this thread, and being someone who establishes government contracts for a living, I think I can contribute a bit here. The best piece of advice given so far: establish a written contract signed by both parties. Verbal ones are iffy, to say the least, and most likely wouldn't hold up in court. The next best piece of advice: document everything. If you do these two things, it doesn't matter what you're distributing, source code, compiled programs, or hub caps, if the other party doesn't pay, and you have documented evidence that you did the work, they're toast. That's called material breach of contract (or default), and any judge would rule in your favor and you'd get your legal fees plus whatever the other party owed you. Now, if you're performing your services under no type of written contract, you're eventually going to get burned and it'll turn into a 'your word against his' situation and your chances of prevailing and being duly compensated are much slimmer. The copyright issue is a good topic too. In the contracts my state awards, -anything- developed in the performance of the contract becomes the property of the state. That doesn't include previously developed or purchased tools, but if we want you to make a widget, and you end up having to develop and make a foobar in order to complete the widget, we own both the widget and the foobar. Of course, copies of either or both may be kept by the contractor at our discretion, and changes to the "Ownership" article are not unheard of. Bottom line: written/signed money for services contracts, all the time, will save your butt! Anyway, hope this helps someone somewhere. :) Jason Soza ----- Original Message ----- From: "Vail, Warren" <Warren.Vail@schwab.com> Date: Tuesday, May 7, 2002 2:34 pm Subject: RE: [PHP] Genus who came up with "Self Destruct Code" & "Copy Pro tection" > Complain all you want about having to distribute source to > customers with > PHP (the free version, that is), but if you were willing to pay > hard cash > for an answer to your problem, it seems to be available at > http://www.zend.com/. The deployment software, on the surface, > > promises to > protect source code. Does anyone on this list have experience > with this > tool? > > Bottom line, can you really look a gift horse in the mouth and > still see the > other end? > > > Warren Vail > Tools, Metrics & Quality Processes > (415) 667-7814 > Pager (877) 774-9891 > 215 Fremont 02-658