4 ms·

If companies are required to publish their source code before selling their software, what keeps a large portion of their market from simply pirating it instead

• scotty79 13y ago
  What keeps them now? If you publish software it will be pirated. Hiding source code doesn't help with that. Even if obligation to publish source code were to harm companies (which might even not be the case) the benefit it would bring to the consumers and whole ecosystem is more important. Companies don't need special protection. The most important advantage of a company is that it can die without killing all people who work there and destroying all its assets. This allows companies to take risks no sane person would take if he were to be responsible with all his money (both savings and potential debt).