Is it recommended to encrypt javascript?

Question

I am currently being offered a job for an IT development business (notice I already do my freelance job and pays well enough), this job sounds good and it would enable me to keep my current job while doing the other one. The thing is, they want to outsource me without giving me any credit whatsoever for the development but the full payment.

On the side of getting payment it sounds good, but on the side of only helping another company build its own reputation using MY work I don't quite like it (Ego mostly, yes I know), so I started thinking and came up with possibly encrypting my javascriptps, php's, etc. I've found some tools online to do that however I'm not sure how good is it to actually do this, I mean, would it affect the functionality or loading speed? also is it really that recommendable for me to do this? I don't know what to think right now...would u guys mind telling me your opinions on the matter?

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Edit to Clarify

The thing here is not that I'm being contracted by a business so that I develop for them specifically they just want to outsource what I do, that is, this IT business will pay me for doing it while they tell the client they did it themselves...which then you can think "well they won't be able to duplicate it themselves" or "if they try to duplicate it at least they'll take some time to undestand the code" but let's face it in the end if they want to they will be able to understand and replicate my code (or something like it)...

Now the issue here is that I am interested in working with them since it'd get me jobs abroad (notice I'm in Mexico and the jobs would be for another country) and I'd really like to get to be known there, but this IT business won't agree to give me some credit...and I currently don't have many other options for getting to be known there.

Answer 1

The end result is not yours if they are paying for it. If you do not like their terms, do not accept the position.

Answer 2

You have to come to some kind of agreement beforehand about who owns the copyright to the code. Are they hiring you to create a product, or are they hiring you to create a code base that they will own and maintain as they desire? If they assume that they are the owners of the code, encrypting it make cause all kinds of trouble for you, such as getting paid.

Answer 3

You may want to consult a lawyer competent in your jurisdiction and ask him about "works for hire". In most areas, code that someone else pays you to write will be owned by them, not by you, unless you can get them to agree to a contract which says otherwise. This applies regardless of whether you are an actual employee, an agency-supplied contractor, or a freelancer.

If they own the code, then they are fully within their rights to require you to provide it to them in a form which will allow them to further modify it at a later date without requiring your assistance - i.e., not encrypted. Personally, if I hired someone to write something for me and they provided it in an encrypted (or even lightly obfuscated) form, I would take that as a sign of bad faith and, even if they did provide a clear version immediately upon request, I would be unlikely to do business with them again in the future.

Answer 4

I like the "take the code hostage" strategy.

I'm sure they'll immediately see it your way. There can't be a half-dozen competent programmers who can adapt an open source package to replace your code.

I'm sure that as soon as they find that the code is locked up they'll immediately ask you what your demands are are immediately give you everything you want.

It's such an ingenious strategy, I wonder why everyone doesn't do it.

Answer 5

the more you code, the better you get (I'd hope). Do the work, get better and don't be greedy about your code. A lot of people would be stoked to be getting any work at all. If we were all encrypting our code to hide it from others communities like this wouldn't exist.