[Zope] Code protection in Zope

[Terry Hancock]

On Friday 06 February 2004 03:39 pm, J Cameron Cooper wrote:
> Celula Research wrote:
> >We have developed solutions which would like to install in customer's 
> >equipment, nevertheless, we can't or don't want to give out the source
> >code and/or risk the products to be distributed without the appropriate
> >permissions, therefore we are looking for some sort of safeguarding the
> >code.

> I don't mean to sound glib, but I would suggest that you solve your 
> contractual problems with contractual solutions. The legal system is 
> your best defense in this area. Technical solutions for copy protection 
> fail left and right, and a number of computer scientists will tell you 
> that this may be because it's impossible.

You know, people say all the time that Python can't be obfuscated,
as if it were something new, but this is really true of machine code
generated by C or C++, too.  You can always "disassemble" it.  This
may be somewhat easier in Python, but it's not a huge difference.
To the typical end-user, the use of Python byte code (*.pyc files) is
probably quite adequate.

Saying that this is pointless is a bit like saying that padlocks are
pointless, because anyone with a bolt cutter can get through them.
At some level, it's true -- all security can be defeated.

I can't comment on the utility of contractual clauses to deal with this
issue, though it seems likely that you can.  No one will read them, 
though.

OTOH, if I get only *.pyc files from somebody, my first guess
is going to be that they did that because they didn't want me to
read their sources.  Certainly, unless I'm awfully motivated, I'm not
going to bother trying to disassemble them.

So unless you love to spend lots of time in court ( :-P ), I imagine
that privacy-strength protection is in order, in addition to any
added fine print.  And that's easy -- just ship byte-code.

Cheers,
Terry

--
Terry Hancock ( hancock at anansispaceworks.com )
Anansi Spaceworks  http://www.anansispaceworks.com