>That is probably the best analogy I have heard yet, and brings up a point that I really hadn't thought about. Time is on my side. Even if they spend the time, I'm still out ahead, because my 'new model' is already done.
>
>Thanks

I had a competitor use a hexeditor on one of my apps and substitute his name and info on embedded text strings containing my name and info. I found out about this because a former client called me to ask about a problem he was having with software he bought that looked like "just like mine" but didn't cost nearly as much. I used some cyptology to mask the info in my next version, and included some code to disable the app if critical areas of code were changed (constants, etc...). He did cut my sales of land leveling programs about in half, however, and I soon switched to a more profitable niche with greater sales opportunities - cattle feedlots.

One of my first applications, a Wrestling Tournament Scoring app, was written in Apple Basic in 1979. In 1996, after I retired my business and reactivated my teaching certificate, I was subing at a rural HS near Lincoln and saw an Apple basic printout laying on a teachers desk. The Title page had some a person's name and business info on it (he lived near Palmer, Ne), but all through the printout were comments containing my name and telephone number!!
Seventeen years later! I was stunned! The changes to the code were cosmetic. I wondered why he didn't take the time to erase my numerous doc lines. It was the code that I had written to run the Clarks Invitational Wrestling Tourney in November of 1979 and was asked to use it to run the Nebraska State High School Wrestling tournament in Feburary of 1980. Actually my son, a ninth grader at the time, ran the program and I watched the meet. :-)
JLK