Re: Self Destruct code

On Tue, 7 May 2002, PHPCoder wrote: > I have a funny request; I wrote a system for a client and am rather > concerned that I am not going to receive payment for the work done. They > want me to hand over the code before they are willing to pay, so > basically I will be left at their mercy; if they don't pay, they will > still have a working version of the system... If you really have the need to protect yourself I would install the application on a staging machine and demonstrate it to the client from there and if they are satisified then you can transfer it to the final location when payment is received. Another alternative would be to install the application on their system but use a database server on a system that you control making sure you keep the table structures you used to initialize the db to yourself. You can then move it seamlessly to the actual server when you (and they) are happy. If they don't pay you can block the application fro accessing your database server and all they'll have is the application with no practical way to recreate the tables thus rendering it useless to them. This way if the mail is late or there is an unintentional misunderstanding you won't find yourself unfairly alienating an otherwise valuable client. Regards, Terry. tcarney@selterra.com ---------------------------------------------------------- Public PGP Key: http://www.selterra.com/pgpkey/tcarney.asc