[Asterisk-biz] A question about ethics, I suppose

[Paul]

Joey Kelly wrote:

>On Monday May 23 2005 19:04, Michael Giagnocavo spake:
>  
>
>>Even better is leaving a "secret" backdoor, that they AGREE to. Sure, if
>>they hire good enough people they can disable it. But at least it gives you
>>some level of security.
>>
>>    
>>
>
>This is a BAD IDEA. We're quick to complain about security holes in others' 
>software, aren't we? A secret back door won't remain secret for long.
>  
>
Ask a lawyer about it. The basic concept is that if you sell something 
and then disable it, that can be considered a form of repossession. It's 
better that they have continual possession and use of the goods because 
that helps reinforce the validity of the debt.

However, renting hardware and software gives you some flexibility. I 
suppose you could write a type of rent-to-own contract. I have known of 
situations where this was done with custom software. Binaries with 
limited run life were rented until the customer paid to own the product 
with source code.