That said, please, if you're a .NET developer who's considering creating and selling a commercial program there are programs out there like .NET Reflector (FREE) which can easily disassemble and display your code in seconds.... Do yourself a favor and look into obfuscation software for .NET which will atleast make it harder to disassemble and will, for the most part, stop the casual hacker from viewing your code.
I appreciate all of the positive feedback I've gotten from everyone here and I'm moving forward with the GCS program...in .NET. I am going to release it as open source but I'd like to get more of the development out of the way before I start getting other people involved. I haven't had much success with multi-developer situations and I'd like to get my "big ideas" done before letting everyone else have at it.
Thanks!
Comments
There are also a lot of traps in open source. I think Bill Gates spoke of open source a cancer. I've been an open source guy before it was called open source. But, I'm also a personal rights guy. What you write is yours and you have the write to do with it as you please, even if it adds to an open source project. The issue comes when you share your work, based on open source code without providing source.
If I understand you right, I think what they did was wrong. Did they NOT acknowledge you in the code they released? If not, that would put them in violation of most open source licenses.
Don't be discouraged. Do your work for you. It's nice of others can benefit from it but it's only necessary that you benefit from it. There are all kinds of thieves in the world. I wish I know all their names so I could avoid them.
Justin, he IS clever. I just can't believe it only took 4 hours for him to find it, disassemble it and post the source code. That's just amazing.
Happy dont give in to knob ends like Entens and keep your project going - He's just a sad little individual sitting in a dark corner thinking he is clever..
Cheers Justin
========== BEGIN SAMPLE DMCA TAKEDOWN NOTICE ==========
Attn: Jim Bourke, RC Groups
Pursuant to 17 USC 512(c)(3)(A), this communication serves as a
statement that: (1). I am [the exclusive rights holder | the duly authorized
representative of the exclusive rights holder] for [title of copyrighted
material being infringed upon, along with any identifying material such
as ISBNs, publication dates, etc -- or, if the material is a web page, the
URL];
(2). These exclusive rights are being violated by material available upon your site at the following URL(s): [URLs of infringing material]; (3) I have a good faith belief that the use of this material in such a
fashion is not authorized by the copyright holder, the copyright
holder's agent, or the law;
(4) Under penalty of perjury in a United States court of law, I state that
the information contained in this notification is accurate, and that I am
authorized to act on the behalf of the exclusive rights holder for the
material in question;
(5) I may be contacted by the following methods (include all): [physical address, telephone number, and email address]; I hereby request that you remove or disable access to this material as it appears on your service in as expedient a fashion as possible. Thank you for your kind cooperation.
Regards, [your full legal name]
Saw your post ON RGC and the idiots post about your code which rather anoyed me in all.
They only real way you can stop (really only slow them down) people from reverse engineering your code in .Net is to obfusciate it etc.
Visual Studio comes with a free community edition of an Obfusciater but it’s a bit naff.
At the offce we use .Net Reactor http://www.eziriz.com/ and hide our spagetti from the great unwashed….
It is quite frightening how easy it is to see .Net source via the likes of .Net Reflector…..