Re: [PHP] php products licensing system
Jad Madi wrote: > I hardly convince my company to have their PHP products open source, > now the challenge is to protect their products from being stolen and > used illegally so we may Encode only one or two files to keep the use > of our products on Certain domain or IP address. Any idea how to > accomplish this ? Here's the thing: Software piracy is a social problem. It's really not solved well by a technical response. Your best bet is to have a CLEAR and FAIR licensing deal, that anybody running the software will simply pay up. No matter what you do, there will ALWAYS be somebody who will find way to steal your software. If you make it simple and easy and inexpensive to just BUY it legally, you'll minimize the losses, without losing customers who will refuse to use software with encrypted source, or the hassle of dongles or hardware dependencies or any of that other "solutions" to this problem. > if its a must to encode some files to achive our goal then we prefer > to stick with opensource/free encoder, our choice now is mmCache > Encoder, but since dl() gonna be depracted in the mean of removed in > php5, we will not be able to offer our products for shared hosting > clients Again, just license it cheaply enough and simply enough that they'll pay up rather than try to fight you and steal it. > any idea how to protect our products, keeping it open souce as much as > possible ? If your software is worth buying and is priced fairly and clearly licensed, and if you provide an easy way for the customer to pay up when the license is due, you'll have a lot less headaches than trying to encode it. If your software is NOT fairly/clearly priced, or it's too difficult to pay and renew the license, you'll end up losing far more money than the encryption will save you. -- Like Music? http://l-i-e.com/artists.htm -- PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php
Re: [PHP] php products licensing system
Jad Madi wrote: as I said, we are willing to have our product open source, but No free. and that fair enough, thats why I'm asking about a good method to protect our products from being used illegaly and keeping it open source It's a tough balancing act. Encoding / closing the source with one of the packages out there is an option. The license that you use is important and always be certain that LICENSE is included in every code distribution. Without knowing a little more about the exact product you sell it's tough to give good advice, but some things that I have seen: - Open up part of the source, but keep the valuable code closed - Different licenses for different parts of the code - Open source it all and charge for 24/7 support services - Open source it all and charge for consulting / specialty services - Open source it all, but only for a client application. Then you have the client connect to a server side app on your site and you charge per usage. My advice: look at some of the *successful* and more importantly *profitable* open source companies out there. -- Teach a man to fish... NEW? | http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html STFA | http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=php-general&w=2 STFM | http://www.php.net/manual/en/index.php STFW | http://www.google.com/search?q=php LAZY | http://mycroft.mozdev.org/download.html?name=PHP&submitform=Find+search+plugins signature.asc Description: OpenPGP digital signature
Re: [PHP] php products licensing system
as I said, we are willing to have our product open source, but No free. and that fair enough, thats why I'm asking about a good method to protect our products from being used illegaly and keeping it open source On Tue, 15 Feb 2005 13:05:52 +0200, Jad Madi <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > as I said, we are willing to have our product open source, but No > free. and that fair enough, thats why I'm asking about a good method > to protect our products from being used illegaly and keeping it open > source > > > On Tue, 15 Feb 2005 10:11:59 +, timothy johnson > <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > So you want to use open source to make it so people cant use your > > code. Does just doesnt sound right, but whatever > > > > > > On Tue, 15 Feb 2005 09:48:44 +0200, Jad Madi <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > Hi folks > > > I hardly convince my company to have their PHP products open source, > > > now the challenge is to protect their products from being stolen and > > > used illegally so we may Encode only one or two files to keep the use > > > of our products on Certain domain or IP address. Any idea how to > > > accomplish this ? > > > > > > if its a must to encode some files to achive our goal then we prefer > > > to stick with opensource/free encoder, our choice now is mmCache > > > Encoder, but since dl() gonna be depracted in the mean of removed in > > > php5, we will not be able to offer our products for shared hosting > > > clients > > > > > > any idea how to protect our products, keeping it open souce as much as > > > possible ? > > > > > > -- > > > Web standards Planet > > > http://www.w3planet.info/ > > > Personal Blogger > > > http://www.EasyHTTP.com/jad/ > > > EasyHTTP Network > > > http://www.EasyHTTP.com > > > > > > -- > > > PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) > > > To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php > > > > > > > > > > -- > Web standards Planet > http://www.w3planet.info/ > Personal Blogger > http://www.EasyHTTP.com/jad/ > EasyHTTP Network > http://www.EasyHTTP.com > -- Web standards Planet http://www.w3planet.info/ Personal Blogger http://www.EasyHTTP.com/jad/ EasyHTTP Network http://www.EasyHTTP.com -- PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php
[PHP] php products licensing system
Hi folks I hardly convince my company to have their PHP products open source, now the challenge is to protect their products from being stolen and used illegally so we may Encode only one or two files to keep the use of our products on Certain domain or IP address. Any idea how to accomplish this ? if its a must to encode some files to achive our goal then we prefer to stick with opensource/free encoder, our choice now is mmCache Encoder, but since dl() gonna be depracted in the mean of removed in php5, we will not be able to offer our products for shared hosting clients any idea how to protect our products, keeping it open souce as much as possible ? -- Web standards Planet http://www.w3planet.info/ Personal Blogger http://www.EasyHTTP.com/jad/ EasyHTTP Network http://www.EasyHTTP.com -- PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php