1. the problems of licensing, copyright, people who don't pay, etc etc could all be handled with a decent license agreement/contract and a lawyer to follow up any possible bad apples.
2. usually people connect to MySQL as "localhost", but you can connect to the server remotely IF the server allows it. I'm not aware of many ISPs that do. of course, there's no reason why they couldn't write another front-end which extracts the data out of their own database and cut you off. 3. you could store all the PHP code and MySQL database AND DATA on one server (yours), and this way only one MySQL database has to allow external connections... I believe this would slow their website down somewhat though. 4. rather than a fully dynamic website, you might want to consider a "build" type tool which generates a site worth of static HTML pages, and FTPs them to the server... so they don't actually get a dynamic site, they get a CMS, and a build tool which merges templates and data into static HTML pages. If all else fails with this stuff, option 1 is always the answer. A clear license/contract/terms of use will deter 99% of business' from breeching copyright. I can relate this problem to a client of mine, who pays a monthly fee for the inventory system in their warehouse. At one stage they got sick of the payments and said "thanks, we'll take it from here". The developer just shrugged their shoulders and left... obviously Within two months, my client had called them back and re-established the monthly payments, because they required: - some bug fixes - some new functionality - support / advice / etc Your best option may be to charge a nominal LICENSE fee for the product AS IS (perhaps base it on the total product's worth, divided by the # of units you think you might sell in 6 months, so eventually you'll start turning a profit). So if they back out after one month, they've got license to USE the product as is, but they give up the right for support, bug fixes, extensions, new bits, etc etc. Or, they may choose to pay the small monthly fees, get the updates, get the support, get the bugs fixed, etc etc. This process might be done in 12 month blocks too... Justin French on 21/06/02 4:29 AM, René Fournier ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) wrote: > I have a question to which I'm pretty sure the answer will be "no", but > I would like to hope I'm wrong... > > I've developed a very simple Content Management tool--called > "Europa"--that even retarded monkeys can use to change/update text in > their web site. It's web-based, user-authenticated (sessions), and runs > with PHP4 and MySQL. > > Now, Europa is pretty much plug and play, so long as the web site is > getting its text from a MySQL database. There's a web agency in town > that is interested in Europa for their clients. Their clients want to be > able to easily and quickly update certain elements of their site without > begging some outside webmaster. They would really benefit from Europa. > > Problem: I don't want to "sell" Europa, or even install it on someone's > web server for a one-time fee. I've spent a long time on this little > tool, and want to continue to improve it. So, I would rather license it > to companies. They pay a quarterly subscription fee, and get to use > Europa as it continues to grow and improve. I'm just a little worried > about one thing: If I install Europa on their server, and they pay their > paltry quarterly subscription fee, and then decide they don't need any > updates, I'm screwed. The value of Europa is much greater than what I > want to sell subscriptions to it for (not much--I'm not really greedy), > but I need some kind of control. > > The idea: In order for Joe User to update text on his web site, he comes > to my "Europa" web site, enters his company name, user ID, password, and > clicks Login, and--voilà--he sees a handsome list of tables containing > the text content of his site--which is pulled from a MySQL database > residing on HIS web site's web host. > > And this is the trick: Can PHP somehow fetch MySQL data over the > Internet? Is this possible? If so, is it necessary for me to resort to > new, unknown technologies like XML or SOAP, or can I do it with PHP > alone? > > Thanks for your comments. > > ...Rene > > --- > René Fournier, > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > Toll-free +1.888.886.2754 > Tel +1.403.291.3601 > Fax +1.403.250.5228 > www.smartslitters.com > > SmartSlitters International > #33, 1339 - 40th Ave NE > Calgary AB T2E 8N6 > Canada > > > -- > PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) > To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php > -- PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php
