Re: How To Give The Client Peace Of Mind
- From: "David W. Fenton" <XXXusenet@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 18 Jul 2006 08:06:39 -0500
"DFS" <nospam@xxxxxxxx> wrote in
news:yB2vg.5345$iP1.2338@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx:
Wayne wrote:
Thanks for the reply DFS. I have always been under the
impression that the code can't be extracted from a mde file.
This is what I was referring to.
That's supposed to be the case, but someone here on cdma claimed
he could extract all the code from an .mde (or he claimed he could
bypass whatever trial limitations I built-in to an .mde - I forget
which claim he made). I don't doubt it at all. It's not hard to
reverse engineer compiled code.
Reverse engineering compiled code is not going to be the same as
extracting the original code. Not by any stretch of the imagination.
Thanks for your other comments. The worry that I have with
distributing the mdb is that an unscrupulous person could pass
the database file/s on to someone else to use or alter to suit
their own environment and I may never know about it.
This is a justified concern, and you don't want to make their
"thieving" any easier than necessary, but is it realistic to think
someone else couldn't recreate your app functionality just by
viewing it in operation?
Of course not, but that would cost a lot more money than using the
original source code.
. . . ie they
don't really need the source code to duplicate your app, so why
worry about them getting it?
You're increasing the cost of stealing your app by not providing the
source code. Thus, since you're exposing yourself to the risk of
theft, you have to charge more for providing source code, thus
making the cost of having the source code and the cost of
re-engineering your app more or less comparable.
Take a sophisticated application like OpenOffice (an open source
office software suite). They've apparently spent years cloning
the features and functionality - and often the exact menu wording
and exact order - in MS Office, and they didn't have the source
code.
And they've spent millions of dollars in uncompensated developer
time in doing so. Not as much as Microsoft, since they are copying
an existing design (copying an Access MDE should never cost as much
as creating the original, since the outward design decisions have
already been made, just as with cloning MS Office).
And they haven't gotten it all right in OpenOffice yet, either.
A client once wanted me to "recreate/duplicate" a proprietary
time-tracking system they paid big bucks in annual maintenance
for. I had the screens to view (in fact I had to log my time in
the thing), and I could see the db structure. That's it. In a
few weeks I built a reasonable facsimile they could use forever at
no yearly cost. . . .
Key difference: yearly maintenancecosts. Eliminating those balances
out the cost of re-engineering from scratch. Unless Wayne is
charging maintenance fees for his app, that's simply not an issue.
[]
Terry Kreft gave you some good advice as well. If I were you I'd
go ahead and give them the source code outright, even if there's
some risk they'll recreate it internally, or find someone cheaper.
If they're cheaper, they're not as good as you, right? :) And
the client will find out and come back to you in short order
anyway.
Another thing to point out to them is that if they take over the
source code, they become responsible for maintaining their archive
of it. This means that if they bring you back after attempting to
hand it off to someone else, they have to have maintained the code
base so that they have the most recent versions (and they may want
earlier intermediate versions if the new hired gun screws things up
badly enough to necessitate a revert to an earlier version). If they
don't do this, costs escalate enormously.
An escrow system managed by the original developer and paid for by
the client seems to me to be the best system. That way the client
would get access to the code if they needed it, and they don't have
to maintain the codebase themselves (something the vast majority of
clients would be completely unequipped to do themselves).
Peace of mind costs $$$$$.
That's the key point.
--
David W. Fenton http://www.dfenton.com/
usenet at dfenton dot com http://www.dfenton.com/DFA/
.
- References:
- How To Give The Client Peace Of Mind
- From: Wayne
- Re: How To Give The Client Peace Of Mind
- From: DFS
- Re: How To Give The Client Peace Of Mind
- From: Wayne
- Re: How To Give The Client Peace Of Mind
- From: DFS
- How To Give The Client Peace Of Mind
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