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PREVENTING Piracy of web based applications


canadabeeau

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Hi,

I am in the middle of developing a new web-based application (PHP/MySQL/HTMl etc). I and my colleagues see a lot of potential in the project and we startd wondering how do we protect the program from piracy. The program would be sold (licensed so copyright remains with us), and therefore we want to protect with license keys (or similar) the program. I was wandering if anyone here has ever done this, has any ideas on how we could do this, or if there is a commercial script (etc) to enable us to do this.

I want soething similar to BoonEx Dolphin and or AdventNetManager ManageEngine, so people cant simply remove a line of code to bypass it.

 

Thanks in advance

RK

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You shouldn't be worried about piracy for server side code as long as you keep your source private.

 

As for anything that is client side like html, css, js there is not anything you can do to prevent someone from stealing your code.

 

EDIT: I didn't realize that you would selling this, I would use Zend Guard.

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If the code in on their server you need to look at securing it until you release a new version, as all protections are crackable

 

read up on

Zend Guard

ionCube PHP Encoder

sourceguardian

 

Zend Guard, does this work only for PHP made in Zend Studio?

 

EDIT: no Zend Guard works on all PHP but requires Zend Optimizer on the server (which is pretty common)

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I once bought a video sharing website software called Clip-share ($299). The project ended up dead, and I lost the code. The way their website works is that you pay extra for extended downloads(which I didn't pay), So I can't get the software back by redownloading it. what a waste of money, I should of pirated it.

I hope you don't treat your customers like that.  ;)

 

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nuCoder is another option.

 

You still need to encode your source code if you want them to require_once() it from your server, as it will come over in plain-text just like any other PHP file.

 

I saw a project out there once upon a time, the goal of which was to turn PHP code into compiled programs.  I don't know if it's still active or not though.

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Not just software patents, all tech patents IMHO. They are just valid way too long, standing in the way of technological progress. For example, if I want to make a x86 processor I have to get a licence from Intel. Yes, to be permitted to use an instruction set in use in computers since 1978, I have to pay the mighty Intel a truckload of money. Geez, I wonder why there is so little competition on the CPU market..  ::)

 

These patents should be valid for like 5 years or something if we want to get somewhere as a race within my lifetime.

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I am waiting for the international patent to clear successfully

 

Software patents are the devils elbow.

 

As a matter of interest, what do you mean?

 

Because the longevity of patents hinders progression in the software/tech world. What was top of the line 15 years ago is trivial today.

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Have you considered not?

 

A number of companies now base their purchases on the ability to tinker with a product to integrate it into their own systems. Encoding the software and managing license will just end up giving you a headache and costing you more than you would by the additional sales you may have made off people who buy the product.

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Not just software patents, all tech patents IMHO. They are just valid way too long, standing in the way of technological progress. For example, if I want to make a x86 processor I have to get a licence from Intel. Yes, to be permitted to use an instruction set in use in computers since 1978, I have to pay the mighty Intel a truckload of money. Geez, I wonder why there is so little competition on the CPU market..  ::)

 

These patents should be valid for like 5 years or something if we want to get somewhere as a race within my lifetime.

 

Greed is more important then human evolution. Luckily though not everybody is like that, there are some great people that have gave us some great open source stuff that has really contributed to the internet. Like Linux, mysql, PHP,.

Can you imagine if there was no linux,php or mysql and only windows, and paid databases? First anyone who wanted to run a website would have to use proprietary windows server, properiety databases, properietyer this and that. I guarantee you that that whole economy would be a lot worse off, there would be less skilled programmers, since most got their head start with opensouce, there would be a lot less websites and more greedy mega websites. The whole internet might of been a 500 channel tv. But I guess for the greedy corporations that would be their wet dream.

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Thankyou for all your advise, I am still going to have the patent, despite the above. However if I feel it is hindering the further development of other projects/products etc I would consider an open-source version of the product, when and if the time arises. I am still investigating the licensing issue, and in response to above comments, it will be licensed but I mean for this is no way to impact integration with other systems at the clients request.

 

More opinions are welcomed.

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