Changing a script to resell

Kevin Birch · 09-21-2008, 06:50 PM

Hi Guys

If I sell a script that I have [had] developed, and someone makes changes to it, can that person legally resell the script as their own?

Thanks .. . .in anticipation

Kevin

Neil Morgan · 09-21-2008, 07:50 PM

That depends on the agreement between your developer and you, and the agreement between your customer and you.

It would also depend on the licensing agreement on any 3rd party code that your developer used in the project.

Cheers,

Neil

rwil02 · 09-21-2008, 07:51 PM

It depends.
If your license agreement prohibits them from reverse engineering, modifying or reselling it, etc, then no.

If you fail to prohibit those things, then it gets into a messy and grey area.

You can't rely on copyright/IP law as that varies from place to place. Contract law is much more reliable as the agreement forms the primary basis for resolving disputes.

tim_buchalka · 09-22-2008, 05:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kevinb

Hi Guys

If I sell a script that I have [had] developed, and someone makes changes to it, can that person legally resell the script as their own?

Thanks .. . .in anticipation

Kevin

Kevin, legally probably not, although that depends on your agreement at the time they purchase from you, as well as your agreement with the developer.

Why not remove the risk and use a tool like Ioncube PHP Encoder? from ioncube.com

That way they can run it fine on their server, but can't make modifications to it because it's protected.

Not the cheapest solution, but fairly safe (as far as these types of tools go).

ioncube is fairly well supported on web hosts these days as well.

Cheers

zerofill · 09-23-2008, 02:29 PM

With PHP that area is tough...there used to be some issues where people would change like 30-40% of a script and call it their own and win in court.

But if you encode the script with something...like others have mentioned...then you can include the "No Reverse Engineering Clause"

Although I haven't followed or read an court cases with anything pertaining to a language like PHP in a few years...and the legal system was much more ignorant to legal issues pertaining to computer software back then...

So I am sure some things have changed...or I hope they have lol.

ryanstreet · 09-26-2008, 03:07 PM

Was your script written as OPEN SOURCE, GPL, GNU, or other open source agreements? If so, you cannot do anything about it. Otherwise, if you can prove that your script was your own and it is still majorly used as what you intended it to be, (ex: you wrote a RSS reader, and he made it a 'blog only' rss reader), you can get him for copyright infringement, if nothing else. Otherwise, check your contract agreement. If you don't have a contract agreement, go with copyright. If you can't pursue that, let this be a lesson in solid contract writing.

Sorry this may not be exactly what you were looking for in an answer, but I don't like to beat around the bush. I hope this helps.

09-21-2008, 06:50 PM	#1
Kevin Birch Senior Warrior Member War Room Member Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: Manchester, UK . . .but I would rather be elsewhere! Posts: 1,449 Thanks: 34 Thanked 35 Times in 28 Posts Contact Info	Changing a script to resell Hi Guys If I sell a script that I have [had] developed, and someone makes changes to it, can that person legally resell the script as their own? Thanks .. . .in anticipation Kevin

09-21-2008, 07:50 PM	#2
Neil Morgan Senior Warrior Member War Room Member Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: Lanarkshire UK Posts: 2,487 Thanks: 98 Thanked 314 Times in 223 Posts Social Networking	Re: Changing a script to resell That depends on the agreement between your developer and you, and the agreement between your customer and you. It would also depend on the licensing agreement on any 3rd party code that your developer used in the project. Cheers, Neil
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09-21-2008, 07:51 PM	#3
rwil02 HyperActive Warrior War Room Member Join Date: May 2005 Location: Auckland, New Zealand. Posts: 241 Thanks: 0 Thanked 13 Times in 12 Posts Social Networking	Re: Changing a script to resell It depends. If your license agreement prohibits them from reverse engineering, modifying or reselling it, etc, then no. If you fail to prohibit those things, then it gets into a messy and grey area. You can't rely on copyright/IP law as that varies from place to place. Contract law is much more reliable as the agreement forms the primary basis for resolving disputes.
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09-23-2008, 02:29 PM	#5
zerofill Donald VanFossen War Room Member Join Date: May 2008 Location: Upstate NY , USA. Posts: 1,996 Thanks: 271 Thanked 354 Times in 173 Posts	Re: Changing a script to resell With PHP that area is tough...there used to be some issues where people would change like 30-40% of a script and call it their own and win in court. But if you encode the script with something...like others have mentioned...then you can include the "No Reverse Engineering Clause" Although I haven't followed or read an court cases with anything pertaining to a language like PHP in a few years...and the legal system was much more ignorant to legal issues pertaining to computer software back then... So I am sure some things have changed...or I hope they have lol.
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09-26-2008, 03:07 PM	#6
ryanstreet CoolRyan.com is Now Live! War Room Member Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Dayton, OH, USA Posts: 308 Thanks: 35 Thanked 191 Times in 22 Posts Social Networking Contact Info	Re: Changing a script to resell Was your script written as OPEN SOURCE, GPL, GNU, or other open source agreements? If so, you cannot do anything about it. Otherwise, if you can prove that your script was your own and it is still majorly used as what you intended it to be, (ex: you wrote a RSS reader, and he made it a 'blog only' rss reader), you can get him for copyright infringement, if nothing else. Otherwise, check your contract agreement. If you don't have a contract agreement, go with copyright. If you can't pursue that, let this be a lesson in solid contract writing. Sorry this may not be exactly what you were looking for in an answer, but I don't like to beat around the bush. I hope this helps.
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