Kim, You do raise a lot of valid points about protecting your software. However we must also keep in mind that over protection makes a software very difficult to use. Unless we balance the two there will not be any sales.
Kim Steinhaug wrote:
Robert has some interesting thoughts aswell here.
I just wanted to complement the stuff about securing your scripts.
Zend has Zend Encoder, rather expensive - and with windows GUI. IonCube also has encoder, much more affordable, CommandLine.
www.zend.com The first encodes and optimizes your code, and your server has 2 have the Zend Optimizer installed on its system for it to run. This has shown in history to be complicated on some ISP, who never gets their finger out and can install this. But usually, 4/5 it goes well.
www.ioncube.com / www.ioncube.co.uk This one compiles and encrypts and optimizes (I think). It requires a module installed on the server, but -> It can also run on most modern apache systems where it installs on the fly (the decoder). Ive just purchased the licence for this product myself, and it looks really promising. Benchmarks on their page also shows that this software accually beats the Zend Encoder, and the price is far better to, :)
If you are developing some sort of software, you should always protect it so that :
1) Your competitors / resellers doesnt fuck you over by "selling" without you knowing it, or "fix" your code to fit their needs without you getting credit /payd for it. 2) Your customers doesnt play "developers" and try jerking your scripts, which in the long run gives you alot of extra support time as the scripts go bugging out.
Happy programming!
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