Intentional file curroption?

If I wanted to intentionally curropt a flash .fla file is it possible to do?
I don't like to give out my animation source files and this client wants both swf and fla... he is bugging me about it. I dont want to give him access to the .fla so is there a way for me to curropt the file on purpose on my mac?

I don't think you want to do that. It is better to look at the terms of your agreement with the client. If the client paid for both the .swf and .fla file, then you must turn them over upon completion of the job. If you want to give up your source code, you will need to state that in the original agreement.

As for this situation, I am not sure of the best recourse.

If in the agreement, the client did not specifically ask for the source, I would not give it to him.

We don't have an agreement based on the source file. I do want to corrupt it though. How would I go about doing that?

I guess you could open the .fla file in a text editor and start deleting randomlines from the mess of characters and typeing more random crap in there.

Edit: I don't know... That is a hard subject to do.

Text Editor isn't opening the .fla

iFX said:

We don't have an agreement based on the source file. I do want to corrupt it though. How would I go about doing that?

Click to expand...

Then charge him for the source.

rman said:

Then charge him for the source.

Click to expand...

That is an awesome idea!

I want to know how to corrupt the source file though, could you guys help me out with that or nah ?

I'm not sure but thats sounds pretty rotten, maybe even illegal? But what do I know

I don't think there is an easy way to corrupt a file. Just encrypt then file.

iNAP why would it be illegal for me to want to corrupt a file that I made? lol come on now.

rman how would I go about doing that? Thanks for the help so far guys

Like i said, What do i know

Searched mac Update and found the following.

iFX said:

Text Editor isn't opening the .fla

Click to expand...

Use vi then.

or eMAcs.

or compress the file with bzip2 then rename the resulting file back to .fla, that should flummox all but the most knowledgeable.

Amen-Moses

I thought about compressing also, but I figure that you could encyprt and then change the name of the file also.

rman said:

I thought about compressing also, but I figure that you could encyprt and then change the name of the file also.

Click to expand...

I once knew a guy who claimed he could break any encryption I could put on a file so I took a screenshot of the file converted it to jpeg and then removed the jpeg header and gave him the resulting file with a .dat extension.

Took him three months to give in at which point he claimed in front of witnesses that the file was just random gibberish and that I had cheated, imagine his embarrassment when I simply put the header back on and loaded the file into his own image viewer. I'm an evil sod sometimes.

Amen-Moses

hmm...i just thought about two things:

A) unplug your computer in the middle of saving the file (who really knows that the results will be) (note: i dont really suggest you do this)

2) how about you open the .fla delete almost everything inside it, and then send it to him

oh and theres another one:

III) work out some type of deal with the person you made it for, what could you have possibly made that absolutely no one can view the source for?? and if it is that important copyright it or something. can we see the final product? im curious about what it is

just some ideas

I'm not a lawyer, so I asked Google. That's the same thing, right? :mac:

http://www.gigalaw.com/articles/2000-all/landau-2000-04-all.html
http://www.lawgirl.com/copyright.shtml
http://profs.lp.findlaw.com/copyown/copyown_2.html

So as near as I can tell, unless you have an agreement that says that this is a "work for hire," you own those source files and have no responsibility to turn them over. You can tell your client as much, and there is nothing he/she can do about it.

On the other hand, if a contract with the client says that this is a "work for hire," then those source files aren't yours to keep.

Now, remember, I'm not a lawyer, I just play one with Google's help. :mac:

That is what I was trying to say earlier.