From: Joni Niemi Date: 2008-10-21T19:57:09+09:00 Subject: Re: I found way to protect Source Code! :) Alexey Petrushin wrote: > Thanks for advices :) > > So, as I understood, there are: > > - Software as a Service, with owned hosting. > Yes! This is the best one, but sometimes clients wants something > 'physically' tangible :). Hi, just my 5 cents worth (that's Euro cents, then). If you only have a few clients, it's basically OK to give them the source code as well: as the source code is protected by copyright laws (unless you live in a very exotic contry like Somalia), your clients are legally bound not to redistribute or even use the software elsewhere (even in-house!). It probably isn't even in the clients' best interest to give the source code out, especially if the code supports some business functionality that gives them advantage over competition. The risk of getting caught in such case is moderately high, with severe fines backed up by copyright law and hopefully your SW license/contract. In fact, you can probably get customers more easily by handing out source code as well, as that gives them some guarantees in case you get hit by the truck or your company bankrupts or something as bad from a market-economy-point-of-view. As for commercial, consumer-targeted mass distribution, I suppose I would use something else than ruby. At least for the moment. :-) Anyhow, for all that GPL-style code lying around, companies are becoming more approving of SaaS solutions (even asking for it -- as a plus side you get all that system administration out of the house). I don't think there are many good business reasons having your servers in-house, unless your business is server farming... Cheers, Joni -- Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.