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Deleted
deleted
4116 Posts |
 Posted - 26 February 2003 : 00:50:37
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I have a plan to write some small/medium sized ASP packages and sell them through Internet. Here are some of the questions in my mind:
- Will it be worth the time?
- How to protect the software from being freely copied? Any way to mak it un-hackable?
- Do I need to TM/Copyrigt it for future?
- What kind of licences will I need to put?
- I don't want to make it freely downloadable like a shareware, will this cut off the market too much? PS: I target firms, not individual website owners.
- Where are the shops to sell these?
Is there anybody out there who has some experience with these stuff? Any input for the above points or anything else is very much appreciated...
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Nathan
Help Moderator
USA
7664 Posts |
Posted - 26 February 2003 : 02:54:19
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There is no way I know of to obscureify ASP code. You can compile it but it is easily decompiled. ASP.NET is a different matter.
Your licence type A) depends on how much feedom you want to give your clients and B) if you used anyone elses code, then you have to comply with their liecences too. For example if there is even one line of GPL code, then your restricted to GPL or compatable licences.
Did I mention how much I hate GPL?
If your target is firms, then charging for your software probably wont hurt you very much as far as market.
I don't know how trademarks and copyrights work in your country. But here there is an implied copyright on all creative works, and you can register your copyright / TM for extra legal protection.
Kinda hard for us to judge whether or not it will be worth your time eh  |
 Nathan Bales
CoreBoard | Active Users Download |
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Deleted
deleted
4116 Posts |
Posted - 26 February 2003 : 03:24:53
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quote:
There is no way I know of to obscureify ASP code. You can compile it but it is easily decompiled. ASP.NET is a different matter.
I saw some JS's which use a kind of encyription. I wonder if such a script which checks for a key or similar can be incorporated. What I want is to prevent abusive use/distribution and provide a bug tracking mechanism back to to me. I'm on the other hand against any method that does privacy infringment to the user such as using XML hits to a site or such...
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Your licence type A) depends on how much feedom you want to give your clients and B) if you used anyone elses code, then you have to comply with their liecences too. For example if there is even one line of GPL code, then your restricted to GPL or compatable licences.
It does not contain any line of code that is GPL or from any other software. It is created with the help of the "new" button in the editor. It is using some methods (not the code) that I learned here or elsewhere thou, but I think this is how Software Engineering is, you use algorithms invented by others, don't you?
I actually consider giving web-site licences to individual users and developer licences for web page designers/designer firms, and the second for a tripled cost or like.
A question related to this would be: Should they be allowed to change/adapt the code? I think yes.
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Did I mention how much I hate GPL?
I believe in GPL, it is a great tool to prevent software cartels leaving more room for individual programmers and small companies.
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I don't know how trademarks and copyrights work in your country. But here there is an implied copyright on all creative works, and you can register your copyright / TM for extra legal protection.
We already have a related (very strict) law in this area, actually it has been adapted from the US. On the other hand, taking a TM/Copyright is a very costly and tedious process.
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Kinda hard for us to judge whether or not it will be worth your time eh
You're right . My question was about any experience you had in software business. If you don't get any income after months of work it will not be worth... I don't know how much an experienced computer engineer (MSc) gets as an income in US lately, but I'm sure that I'll find myself investing several tens of thousands USD worth work for it.
Did I say that programming is fun ?
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HuwR
Forum Admin
United Kingdom
20600 Posts |
Posted - 26 February 2003 : 04:24:40
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If you are worried about people stealing/ copying your code, then you should not really release anything in ASP, you would be better to compile it as a COM object or ISAPI dll
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I don't know how much an experienced computer engineer (MSc) gets as an income in US lately, but I'm sure that I'll find myself investing several tens of thousands USD worth
And who bloody cares, there is nothing about an experienced Msc engineer that means they would be a good programmer, so why the income comparison. |
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DJBBIZ
Junior Member
214 Posts |
Posted - 26 February 2003 : 14:45:49
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| You don't need to register your code with the federal department to have a copyright. Just use the copyright notices and copyright mark and it is copyrighted. The registration merely records the copyright officially and puts out public notice that makes it easier to prosecute in the future if you choose. That is the hard part, enforcement and prosecution as it is costly, hard to monitor and even more dificult across countries. THis is why most developers give away code to individuals and just charge commercial enterprises, its the only thing that you can see and go after easily. |
"The difference between good ideas and good results is performance"
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snaayk
Senior Member
USA
1061 Posts |
Posted - 26 February 2003 : 16:37:11
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If you want to just stop abusive copying of your code there's a trick that an ASP programmer did to an app that checks to see if the modify date has been changed, if it has then it responds.ends otherwise it executes. It took me a while to find the code, but I did, so it would would only deter the casual coder from messing with the finished project.
If you want to sell to businesses then you are better off converting to a com or use .net and make it an actual application. If its for a small business user where you're not charging to much and offering a good package some tricks will deter most people.
It really depends on the product, price range, and demographcs (who wants to use your product) |
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xstream
Junior Member
242 Posts |
Posted - 26 February 2003 : 20:25:06
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quote:
Originally posted by snaayk
If you want to just stop abusive copying of your code there's a trick that an ASP programmer did to an app that checks to see if the modify date has been changed, if it has then it responds.ends otherwise it executes. It took me a while to find the code, but I did, so it would would only deter the casual coder from messing with the finished project.
All you would have to do is change that part of the code. The only real way to protect it is to probably go ahead and compile it, and then use what you mentioned.
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