Julie, I understand the consumer rights that you are trying to protect, but it's painfully obvious that you are not open to protecting our intellectual property. Until you learn how to program these systems you will never be able to understand the time and knowledge necessary to write useful and repeatable code.

Any consumer that has paid their bill should not be locked out of modifying their system. However, it doesn't mean that they are entitled to every resource that was used in the development. There are very few companies that would hold the code hostage if the bill was paid. Even if I was out of business I would still give my clients whatever they needed. However, while in business I should not be expected to freely distribute the intellectual property that gives me an edge vs. my competitors.

When we program touchscreen remotes they are very similar to a web site. If I hire someone to design a web page for me, they will deliver all of the complied code to properly display in a browser. It would be rare for a company to offer their design files used to create custom fonts, flash modules, graphics layers and project planning materials.

Contractor's legal documents should specify exactly what the customer will be receiving. In nearly all cases it should be assumed that the client is purchasing a use license only for the devices originally programmed. A customer should ask the contractor if their proposed control system can be modified by another dealer of that product. My control system is RTI, the program for each device can easily be retrieved and it doesn't really matter if I go out of business.