You're being lied to. - Sara Golemon

when you assign (not by reference) a PHP5 object to a new variable, that integer handle is copied into the new variable, but it still points at the same instance, because it's still the same number.

Bottom line is it is like being passed by reference, but not quite, and it is better so long as you don't try to pass by reference. Get &= and such out of your PHP 5 code.