There is also the aspect of doing stuff on the web where the JavaScript code
is viewable by anyone who does a View Source and the PHP code is hidden due
to it being executed on the server. The software that RMS keeps referencing
is actual software that I make for a client. His views don't really
transition to the web when the web browsers people use basically give access
to how the sites work whether the owner of the website wants them to or not.
Let's talk JavaScript for a moment since PHP is protected either way from the
end user. Say you do a website for a coupon company that uses some pretty
unique ways in how they interact with the user. The competing coupon company
has an "oh crap" moment and want to mimic what you do. This is the trend in
computing where many companies aren't really innovating at all but simply
copying the ideas of others.
In your point of view, I should release the code under a GNU friendly licence
even though I can attach a copyright to the company I did the site for. What
is stopping the competing company from seeing my code, copying it due to the
GNU licence, and then using it for their site. Let's say they still give me
or the company I did the work for credit.
Now the company I did the work for originally comes back to me and says their
competition has copied them and their computer guy or whatever looks at the
code and sees that the JavaScript is exactly the same. The client gets pissed
off because they paid you a LOT of money for coding something for them and
now you are willingly giving it away for free for anyone to have. Once again,
I am in big trouble with legal fees.
The reason I am bringing this all up is that if I made a custom application
or one under the GPL and gave it to a company to run on their computers,
there is no way for the competition to see their code unless they are
physically there or have access to their computers. The internet puts the
company's code out in the open for anyone to look at and gives a greater
chance for others to steal. You know where I am coming from?
