First off, let's get an understanding of what exactly happened with MOS. This summer, DetachedSolutions got the opportunity to be a mentoring agency in Google's
Summer of Code. This meant that they were
obliged to make all of their programs open source. The actual source has yet to be posted on Sourceforge, but it's not DetachedSolutions fault (or so they claim), it's just Sourceforge's slowness. Therefore, the community has yet to take advantage of the opensourceness of Mirage, yet.
I
really think that you should make DCS open source. Think about it. How many people can compile ASM, I ask you. Not many. Of these few, how many of them are n00bs that are going to steal your code. I'd doubt that any would, but you may have one jerk - but you can take care of that; the benifeits are much better. Other users can write improvements to DCS. This means that you will have help with all of those bugs that MaxCoderz always bitches about. Also, you will have regular coderz helping you with DCS, which would lead to quicker release dates (so maybe we can beat that Jan 1, 12:00 AM, 2007 deadline).
I think it's immature to believe that you are going to be ripped off in this situation. I agree that the community will back you up if anyone was to be an a. At the same time, I respect your choice to make your shell closed source. At the end of the day, it's what you want. But, I think it's very selfish for you to make the code closed source. You're not making any money off of it. What reason do you have to keep it closed, other than this
SINGLE excuse that people will copy it. I think you need to move past this fear Kerm. This can really be awesome for the community as a whole
I know that you mostly disregard my posts, and I understand that at the end of the day, it's your choice, and it should be your choice! But, please, at least consider (and I mean seriously consider) making it open source. I realize you have been robbed in the past, but if you were robbed in real life, would you live inside a concrete box to protect yourself from future robbings? Or would you continue on with your "open" life, and let the community (police) handle the perps?