I'm wondering if anyone is familiar with the new read only feature in Crystal reports 2011 - supposedly it doesn't allow the report to be opened therefore protecting one's intellectual property.

The question I have is whether or not it is backward compatible with XI or 2008 viewers. I write reports for an application written by a third party and I would like to sell some of them to clients of that company, however, I don't want that company to have access to modify those reports. This new feature sounds like it would do the trick - problem is that I'm told the application uses the 2008 runtime for reports that are run from within the program.

The bulk of my reports are designed to be run externally using Logicity Suite to schedule & email reports - Logicity has the ability to encrypt the report so I'm all set there - its the internal reports that I would like to protect. I've sold a couple through that company and even though I've specified terms of use & licensing I'm quite sure they have been inside them.

Thanks for the reply.

I sort of figured that was the case. The runtime is a bit buggy and I've suggested they upgrade - hopefully they will.

Its interesting that a company that writes software and goes to all extremes to protect their intellectual property doesn't reciprocate. I have several fairly complex reports that do what they failed to do and they would love to have but they are not willing to pay at all. This is a $30K program with a $5K/yr maintenance charge times 500+ clients - I think they can spare a few hundred to keep their other clients happy!

Thanks again
Cyber-guys