>[...] make sure the programmer is *really* "out of business" [...]

<legalese>

Respected colleagues,

I am no longer pursuing the project for which I posted the previous question. It has become clear on further investigation that the prospective client does not own the rights to the source code of his program, or the right to alter that program. The license agreement is very clear.

Even if the original programmer is out of business (which I don't believe he is, despite the fact that he's very difficult to contact), he still owns the rights to the program.

</legalese>

Now, given the previous statement, I am still interested in any information about currently available encryption/copy-protection software for VFP, and also interested in the reverse. Occasionally, if you can contact a programmer who's gone out of business, he/she will actually give/sell you the rights to modify the program which he/she no longer supports. They sometimes will give you the source code, but will sometimes no longer even have it.

Regards,