> * There is no compliance reason why OP couldn't have read access to look at the source.*
At a guess, I would say you have never worked with DRM integration. Getting access even to the binary SDK's can take months, and if you ever need the special license to work with the thing on source code level, prepare for a delay of several quarters.
Long time ago, Nokia was integrating Microsoft's DRM. I got to witness first hand the red tape needed to allow a new person to even see the source code the team worked with. And this was thanks to requirement MS imposes on their licensees.
The other code I know of that was heavily siloed were Nokia's DSP codecs. Pretty sure there were other corners with similarly absurd external restrictions but at least I was never exposed to them.
My closest experience was working with SDK of CCTV system. Which, after six months of waiting for legal, ended up being the ugliest and most obtuse codebase I've ever seen.
Thankfully, it was an optional side project at work, so I was able to step away and make more progress elsewhere.
But it also substantially reinforced my opinion that... if you need to keep a codebase secret... it's probably not a good thing.
And yes, I realize it is sadly endemic in the embedded world, for reasons both good (firmware secrets) and bad (artificial moats and controlling integration and compatibility).
At a guess, I would say you have never worked with DRM integration. Getting access even to the binary SDK's can take months, and if you ever need the special license to work with the thing on source code level, prepare for a delay of several quarters.
Long time ago, Nokia was integrating Microsoft's DRM. I got to witness first hand the red tape needed to allow a new person to even see the source code the team worked with. And this was thanks to requirement MS imposes on their licensees.
The other code I know of that was heavily siloed were Nokia's DSP codecs. Pretty sure there were other corners with similarly absurd external restrictions but at least I was never exposed to them.