[kevin]

Hello everyone !

I hope this is a right place to post my topic.

As you aleady know Perl + PHP are the open source languages. Poeple who know about Perl + PHP they can read and understand the code.

My question is if someone (programmer) copy the source code from another Freeware (or Paid Ware) and then he modifies the code to make it different with the original. Then he going to sell his "new" code to his customer with a lower price.

What do you think? Is it OK to let him to do that? If you are the owner of the original code then how you deal with this situation.

I'm learning hard to become the good programmer in the future (and maybe I will have some good products:-) . I'm just scare if someone steal my hard work and I have nothing to do with them.

How can you fight against the thieves if you know he stole your code (or your idea or your software...)

Please let me know what you think !

Regards!
Kev.

[Damian]

ok first things first. You can make payable software using perl and php. Secondly, if you don't want your idea stolen you can patent it. Register your idea worldwide but that costs $$$..shitloads of $$$.

If you plan to distribute your software as freeware, you can encrypt it using some scripting encrypters such as zend but then that would go totally against the opensource idea. Opensource exists because not everyone's needs are the same but are similar, so people can edit your code for their personal use.

You can also combine opensource and licence system which people can download an opensource copy of your software but they need a licence to distribute it or resell it. The latter is not an option...no one will buy a licence from you if they downloaded it for free but then again it's a possibility.

Damian

[Pineapple]

Software is considered intellectual property and you cannot patent it (at least not in the US).

Creating a derivative work (by modifying another copyrighted piece of software) and selling it would be copyright infringement and is of course illegal.

[kevin]

Hi Guys!

Let say you're the owner of the original software (Perl or PHP script). And you've found out on the Net someone have modified your code AND THEY ARE SELLING IT right on their website, then what will you do with them?

Another case, let say you are the customer, you've bought the the script from website "XXX.com" - 1 month later you found out you have bought the illegal software. What will you do?

Kev/

[nd2]

the software it's self you might not be abble to, but the design you should be abble to (the stuture (frame work)) i think thats what adobe, ibm ect do

just make sure your eula is clear that they cannot copy or redistrubte your code, but there is allways going to be someone that will copy the code no matter what it says.

if you find some one that is selling your software, contact them with a polite email if they do not respond or they fail to complie email there host with anouther email. This should resolve something.

[Damian]

make sure your software clearly states if it's opensource or not...if they have the ability to modify the code, redistribute it, sell it etc. If you don't want anyone to copy it and you find someone doing just that....sue their *** ! Of course you MUST register your software under copyright laws. By just typing (C)Copyright whatever doesn't mean it's legally copyrighted... Copyrighting something costs money !

Damian

[kevin]

Hi Damian !

How to register my software under copyright laws? Do I need the Attorney to do it for me or I can do it by myself ? How much does it cost huh ?

Kevin

[Dj_Farout]

What you can do is make features open source and then make a make a zend addon that adds more features and you can even control what domain name it runs on. I think its a feature in Ion cube(not sure if that is the correct name)
[google: php encoders]

but i've seen it used by several companies, you can even make the licence expire after a certain time period.

[Stefan]

Originally Posted by kevin

Hi Guys!

Let say you're the owner of the original software (Perl or PHP script). And you've found out on the Net someone have modified your code AND THEY ARE SELLING IT right on their website, then what will you do with them?

Another case, let say you are the customer, you've bought the the script from website "XXX.com" - 1 month later you found out you have bought the illegal software. What will you do?

Kev/

this depends completely on a number of factors:

a) what license was the original script released under?
b) what license is the new script sold under?
c) are the credits still in place?

for instance, scripts released under the most popular of licenses in the php world, the GPL, can be altered, sold, or whatever, as long as the selling party does not sell the rights to the software (as the selling party is not the owner of those rights, so they can not sell the rights to the software).

with the GPL, everything may be done with the sourcecode, as long as the credits remain in place.

similar things apply for a number of other open source licenses.

if you are in doubt about a specific script or a specific license, then you should either ask an attorney to study the licenses and the way it's being sold, or give your specific example here so we can study it. I'm sure I'm not the only person knowing something about open source licenses