Once upon a time we (and by we I mean a company called Oceanworks) used one of the many PHP Encripters to protect our code. It works don't get me wrong, but it's not friendly and it adds to the cost of the licence. It also makes getting code patched a little more tricky, as you (as I remember) need a licence for each of the encoders to produce the code, so can get expencsive if everyone needs one. This bit of kid did work wonderfully at protecting our product, but I've gone through the JED enough times and seen the phrase 'IonCube' to know that I won't install anything that comes with that, free or otherwise, to know that people wont do it for our product.
After this, all options come under the 'how much do you trust your client' options. I've purchased many products for J! that require the usual registration and purchase to be emailed instructions to download the code. The idea then is, if you want to tinker under the hood, be our guest, but I'm sure most people don't worry about this and just get on with using the thing. Now, here's where I get paranoid, what's stopping those people popping it up up using a torrent or one of the many P2P networks? Not a lot frankly. I guess you have to manage with the fact that someone will find a way to use your app for free.
Third is the OSS community grail, a business that can give code away freely and just live on the other things that this brings, i.e. support. Support embrases many things from manuals to installations to custom development if the clients pocket is deep enough, but this, for me, doesn't return the money needed to make a dent in the costs of making the component in the first place. Doing this with the second option is kind of a must really I guess. I've also payed for support for a product (even if it's just access to a set area in a forum) so I know this model kinda works as a suplimentary revenue stream.
So I still don't know how to protect my hard work!
