Protecting Source Code

[Ira Baxter]

"Cameron Zemek" <grom_3 at optusnet.com.au> wrote in message
news:3ebb348d$1 at usenet.per.paradox.net.au...
> How can I protect my python source code for a commerical application?

First answer, don't give it away; sell object modules.
Now the object code, being a byte code, is relatively amenable to reverse
engineering,
but names and comments are at least gone.

If you must supply the source code to your customer,
then the best answer is a legal agreement.
At least then you have some recourse if something goes wrong.

A second answer in the case of source code is to obfuscate it:
strip comments and scramble names.  This produces
what a 1st-step reverse-engineering process might produce
from the object code, so it isn't better than delivering
object code, but it isn't worse either.
We offer a line of obfuscators that work like this, based on parsing
technology:
(http://www.semanticdesigns.com/Products/Obfuscators/index.html).
We don't make one for Python (yet!), but we do have a Python parser.

One can go for serious obfuscation, in which garbage predicates,
bogus code blocks, etc. are added to the source code.
These make the reverse-engineer's job a lot harder.
Program transformation machinery is needed for this.


--
Ira D. Baxter, Ph.D., CTO   512-250-1018
Semantic Designs, Inc.      www.semdesigns.com




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