Source code purchases

DotNetInterest

Hi I have a interesting question. When we buy a .NET controls package with source code and learn from it the way to develop professional controls and we want to write our own control for commercial sale, would it be a legal issue? Assume in the above scenario that I buy a control with its source code and i learn how real professional controls are developed (as a learner). Then I get some more ideas of my own and want to write a control from scratch, maybe the control I am planning to write carries the same functionality of the one I purchased, but i wrote it from scratch with my own ideas and functionalities, and sold the licenses commercially, would the seller of the control I purchased earlier, have any right to create problems for me with the sales i am making out of the control i wrote (all from scratch)? You can assume that: 1. I only learnt how a propessional control was to be written 2. I start writting my new control from scratch with no referece to the one I purchased, whatsoever. Any ideas?

fakefur

It's called copying.

Daniel Turini

If you don't copy a single line of code from it, it's perfectly legal, unless they patented something so that only they can do it. But this is harder than it can sound. Once you read their code, your mind is tainted: probably you'll start coding things in a way similar to them, and sooner or later, your mind will play tricks with you (some people call it the "shared source poison pill"), and unconciously, you'll write something identical to them. If you decide to go this way, I'd suggest you to: 1. Add really compelling features. Make it better documented, add better samples, iow, make it clearly better. If not, although legal, it will become clear that it's a cheap copy and your customers may not trust you. 2. Ask someone else to check if you didn't any code or structure from the other control. Otherwise, you're at risk of copying code, and this is plagiarism. I see dead pixels Yes, even I am blogging now!

Marc Clifton

After looking at the different third party control suites out there, I got the distinct impression that they all feed off each other's work. DotNetInterest wrote: but i wrote it from scratch with my own ideas and functionalities There's nothing wrong with that, but... DotNetInterest wrote: and i learn how real professional controls are developed Having looked at some of these suites, the term "professional" isn't exactly what I'd use. But then, I shouldn't be making criticisms, as I've never written one of these monsters myself! Marc MyXaml Advanced Unit Testing YAPO

Allen Anderson

as someone who sells controls (and their source) myself I can tell you that you may be able to get away with it legally but it's fairly unethical. In my source license agreements I stipulate that people purchasing said source will not direclty compete with my control for a period of at least 3 years. I'd be suprised it other component vendors didn't have similar clauses in their license agreements.

jonathan15

I dont think he wants to create identical controls. I think he just wants to use the source just as examples of how to do specific tasks. IMO this is OK. we all use source examples from books, articles, free downloadable source or colleagues to help us learn. If he is not copying the code whats the problem? Even our coding styles although unique are based on the code and teachers we learnt from. I thought one of the best ways to learn to code is to get and read some code, then write some code, then get and read some more code etc. Jon

Allen Anderson

so in that sense I agree. If he's just looking to learn how to write controls and not specifically copy their controls then I can see the benefit. However, with a lot of control writing knowledge I would say that looking at others control code probably won't be of as much help as several books out there.