What to do....

Anon

Hi! I have a problem, I make a PHP Script, and someone has stolen it. I want to know how to protect my PHP Script with license, so only I can use it. (The owner), in my webpage. How can I do it? I don't want this person to send my PHP Script to other people, but I don't know what to do... How can I protect it with copyright or license, so nobody can steal me, and if it does... I can't demand... There is someway to do it?

Thanks, Whose.

P.D. Sorry for my bad english, I'm spanish.

jordan

The best thing you can do is to not give people access to your source code. I don't understand how this person got ahold of your code in the first place if you weren't distributing it freely..

Anon

Because He hack my webpage and without my permission, he gets the source code.. I need to do something now but I don't what to do

Anon

copywriting scripts is hard to do.. because what you are trying to do is copy-write an idea, or a process of doing things.

i mean you could include something at the bottom like

$copywrite = "this is copy writed by me";
echo"$copywrite";

and if the $copywrite is there then die;

or you could (i am not sure if it still works this way, you should check it) print out the code, mail it to your self (so it gets post marked date). and then get a city seal stamped on it. this will show that you had the idea, on that date... and so on.

other then that i cant help ya.

jordan

Whose,

First, you need to secure your server. If you're getting hacked, this isn't a PHP question, it's is a server question. If your server is secure, nobody will be able to get your code, and you won't have to come up with any contrived copy-protection scheme. As far as the code that has already been stolen, the best you can do is take legal action. That's the best you can do. Since you seem to know who the culprit is, you can always make their life very difficult, for almost no money at all. Examine your logs and find out who his ISP is. Have his ISP cancel his subscription (smaller ISPs are relatively easy to deal with in this respect). If he connects through a university (which you can figure out through your logs), tell every authority you can find there about his actions, and get him suspended or expelled. There's all sorts of stuff you can do. Jaret, as most people, seems to have the wrong idea about copyrighting. In most countries, if you produce a piece work, you automatically hold the copyright, unless you've signed an agreement to the contrary. If you write a script, even if I nobody else ever sees it, it is still be copyrighted by you, and that's admissible in court. However, this can be difficult to prove in court.

Anyhow, like I said, the first thing you need to do right now is secure your server so you don't have this problem again. The next thing to do would be to contact his ISP. If that's not enough for you, get a lawyer.