E-Dribble

I needed a PHP calendar application for a client so did a search today:  “open source php calendar”.  Now for all the ignorant out there, the open source designator is not because we’re cheap.  Today I found a perfect example of why nobody should waste time with a closed source application.

One of my results for my search was the “Easy PHP Calendar“.  Please note that the word “Easy” is in the title.

To install the php script, you must first download a test script.  The test script will then tell you which version of the script you are to download.  This is done in an effort to squash any requests for refunds due to incompatibilities.  They gotta protect their assets.

Now, depending on the version of your encoding system, you need to… what’s that?  Encoding system?  For a php script?  Oh yeah, you need to choose between the version that uses the Zend or IonCube encoder.  This keeps people from being able to get to the source code for the script.  Changes to the script to make it suit your needs?  Don’t make me laugh.  They gotta protect their assets.

All that’s left is agreeing to the license agreement which bears incredible resemblance to a certain OS, which we won’t mention and you’re off!  Man, that was easy.

Ok, you’ve got the script running, but there are a couple of things you would like to be able to modify that you can’t because the source is encrypted, remember?  Maybe purchasing a license will allow you access to the source.  Well, he has three levels of licensing, surely one of them will allow you to actually own the script, right?

No.

All three licensing options deal with the number of advertising links on your script.  The first level of licensing removes his ad from the calendar pop-ups.  The second level removes it from the header of the monthly and yearly calendars generated by the script.  The third level actually removes the ad from all calendar pages.  No license, however, allows you to actually modify the script to suit your needs.  They gotta protect their assets.

So I went and found an open source calendar application.

Hey, I gotta protect my assets.