If Greensock server is down will membership plugins still work?

[Demorus]

I found a few codepens with textsplit.js but noticed that I got redirected when I used it, noticing that it requires a membership. Those plugins seem to establish a connection with an external source.

 

If I purchase a membership for lets say 1 year, what happens after that time has passed? Will my plugins be deactivated?

Do my plugins still work if Greensock is down for some reason or are they dependent on some server?

[Carl]

Hi and welcome to the GreenSock forums.

 

Thanks for your question.

 

The plugins never communicate with or rely on GreenSock servers, nor do the plugins deactivate automatically.

 

Let us know if you have more questions.

[GreenSock]

Just to provide a few more details...

 

We use a special version of the plugins on our web site and in our codepen demos. That version will only work on specific web sites. When you load it, it will check the domain and if it's not a "legal" one, it'll redirect you to that page on our site giving you a warning. However, the REAL version of the plugins that come with Club GreenSock memberships do not contain that special code. So when you become a member and use those legit files in the members-only download, you'll never get redirected to our server. We do not install any special "phone home" scripts, and the JavaScript files never communicate with our servers directly for any sort of validation, thus even if greensock.com went down, it would NEVER affect your project. 

 

So again, the key distinction here is that the plugin file you tried using was a special limited version that only works on certain sites (otherwise a lot of people would just steal it and never buy a membership that's required). When you buy the membership, you get the file that has no such limits.

 

Does that clear things up?

[Demorus]

Hi, yes it does. Can you give me advice how I protect your files from theft? If I use them on my project then everyone can see the source code and link to the greensock plugins:

 

Should I minimize and then obfuscate your files to prevent such things from happening?

[GreenSock]

I really appreciate that you want to protect the files like that. Very kind of you, but we try to make your job easier, not harder, so we don't require anything like that. We realize that people could steal our code from our legitimate customers' source code and we have purposely taken a trusting posture with that. Yes, undoubtedly some people will rip us off, but we hope that the trust we extend to the community is reciprocated and those who violate that trust won't ultimately be very successful.  

 

If you feel strongly about wanting to protect the code, feel free to send me a PM or email and I can hook you up with a version of our protected file that allows usage on your domain (you tell me what domains should be whitelisted). But again, it's not necessary at all. Thanks for even asking about it. 

[Demorus]

I really appreciate that you want to protect the files like that. Very kind of you, but we try to make your job easier, not harder, so we don't require anything like that. We realize that people could steal our code from our legitimate customers' source code and we have purposely taken a trusting posture with that. Yes, undoubtedly some people will rip us off, but we hope that the trust we extend to the community is reciprocated and those who violate that trust won't ultimately be very successful.  

 

If you feel strongly about wanting to protect the code, feel free to send me a PM or email and I can hook you up with a version of our protected file that allows usage on your domain (you tell me what domains should be whitelisted). But again, it's not necessary at all. Thanks for even asking about it. 

 

No problem. I can see this library changing the future of the web so I want to support it. I will certainly PM you once I registered my new domain and purchased BusinessGreen

 

I think those who do take the source code and cant afford a 50-150 dollar for your membership are not succesful to begin with. Professionals who earn enough money are also willing to buy memberships. That is my opinion, I might be wrong though. At the other side if those people steal it for certain tutorials and demos it is "free" advertising as long as they dont use it commercialy.