Julie,
I totally respect your side of this story and I agree that there should be a back-up if you will of the program. As I stated before though, this is propietary software for programming. No customer is actually allowed to have this on their computer.
Now, back in the day of Landmark (ya'll remember those days) we had to place it on a local computer to work AMX. Alot of the time when there were calls for problems, the program had been tampered with by the customer. We had a tough time proving that and most of the time it ended in a "service" call. Lucky for the customer, we had a copy.
With that said, if you want to make sure that there are back-up copies of this program then I will accept leaving a copy on the customer's computer (hidden) for that rainy day when my laptop, external and sync'd desktop die. But I can't see leaving a copy for my competitor or give the customer ammunition to deceive or short change me. That just isn't a good idea.
Again, human element. What's best for me (them).
I believe that most of the integration companies with a few years in the business are truely trustworthy and are there to serve their customers. We do everything to keep our names and our industry top notch. I think that you might be speaking for those "out of trunk" installers who might not be around a few weeks from now. But it's up to the customer to take safety precautions and to check the references of their installation company.
If there is a problem between my company and the customer then I would agree to part ways and give them an exceptable program to use until the next company can program their system. There are alot of modules and tricks I use that other companies either don't know about or CAN'T program. Can't see giving my "secrets" away. Can you?