The extra "benefit" of selling scripts?

[Nexus]

I'm posting this in a new thread so the discussion doesn't unintentionally hijack someone else's sales thread. The discussion centered around the idea of people "selling" scripts, and the notion that practically-speaking, nothing says they need to stop using the script (like any sale of "unprotected" software). DomainRetriever made a statement that I thought was only partially true, but ultimately one I can sympathize with.

Here's the previous line of discussion:
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Originally posted by DomainRetriever
The funny thing about selling perl and php scripts is
you get to keep them after you sell em

Nitroshock responded:

Originally posted by Nitroshock
This is true of *any* files. Using it legally is another matter although the GPL does a good job of keeping things free.

Then I responded:

Originally posted by Nexus
Same about selling software in general... but you already know that. j/k

Followed by his response:

Originally posted by DomainRetriever
Not quite true. When you sell Perl or PHP scripts you sell
the source code to whatever it is that your "SOFTWARE"
does. That means that ANYONE can now alter the source
code, or reproduce it at will without your permission or
knowledge.

With software, you're not selling the source code
but a compiled product, so it's impossible for an average
consumer to alter it.

With copy protection systems (such as the on in DR), illegal
distributions can easily be controlled. It's ALMOST impossible
to put copy protection systems on scripts.

Selling Perl/PHP scripts is the worst thing you can do. I don't
remember who this was anymore, but whoever sold that
Yamoz script on eBay for about $50 made a total idiot
out of himself. The script was copied, altered and resold
a million times and now Yahoo and Dmoz domain lists
are worthless. This idiot single handedly brought down an
entire sector of the expired domain business, just
because he decided to sell source code.

Just my 2 cents.
Luc L.

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And, here we are, up to date:

Luc, definitely check this product out:
http://www.sourceguardian.com/

Encryption & obfuscation certainly helps. More people should do it. ModernBill certainly does, and that is a really nice piece of software my company uses. Development requires an extra layer of intentionality and trade-offs (as with regular software dev). Traditional benefits of "hacking" and "mods" are nice, but not if the publisher cannot afford to continue the work due to rampant piracy.

Anyone else have thoughts about selling scripts and piracy? I'm working on some products I truly believe will help this community immeasurably, but I'd abandon the idea of investing so much time if I thought for a minute I'd be opening myself up to people trading my "software" willy-nilly without actually making a purchase. Partly why I'm considering very low prices. The trade-off is of course that it takes longer to develop these "extra" systems into the product, "extra" mechanisms to interface with customers, and "extra" testing to ferret out many potential problems related to protection.

Other encryption products like that from Zend (PHP developers), are almost cost prohibited for smaller markets.

Thoughts?
~ Nexus