>I do not understand why we see software different than other things, for example a book. Of course the idea of encrypting or obfuscating a book is nonsense, as the book will lose its purpose, but the book, as well as software has (have?) copy-rights protection, so in order for your competitor to take advantage of your research they will not only need to invest a lot of effort understanding the code, but they will need to write it in a way that is completely different than yours, lets say they change all the code but they did not change the database design, I am sure you can nail them for copyright infringements for that, and if you cannot for there is a flaw in the copyright laws, then this flaw should be addressed. If they change the database design it will be very unlikely that they can re-use your code. So in this sense, protecting source code access is redundant, as it is already protected by copyright laws, the same way every other creation is protected, for example car design.

I agree with that, we also used to be very careful with branding like 15 years ago, thinking that all kinds of people are trying to steal your sourcecode, but we have learned that if anybody would be able to understand and use our source code, we probably would make him a job offer instead of suing him.

Software can be different than a book in such a way that it is used by businesses to run their production and/or administration. In some cases the software runs the core business and has a great part in maintaining or increasing the revenue of that company. So unlike a book or a simple guideline, without the software the company would not be able to make that money, so the producer of that software wants to have some revenue of that as well. A telecommunication company for instance runs their billing system on a software package. They also purchase and sell cell phones. The cell phone provider continues to make profit by selling their phones to the company, but the software provider has no material "thing" to send to the telecommunication company, so they charge based on transaction value. The larger the telecommunication company is, the more they need to pay for using the software. The software company needs this revenue to invest in updates and future development to keep their software on the latest standard, so it's a win/win situation, because in a few years the telecommunication companies can rely on more modern updated programs which have been developed.

On the other hand, many foundations that do not make profit often receive free or very discounted software packages.