On Mon, May 14, 2012 at 11:00 AM, Mike Graham
<mikegraham@gmail.com> wrote:
On Mon, May 14, 2012 at 1:46 PM, Guido van Rossum <
guido@python.org> wrote:> If you look into legal ways of protecting physical property you'll
> find that having locks, fences etc. is often necessary for legal
> protection to apply. That's why so often you'll find "no trespassing"
> signs (in Holland these even have a specific reference to the law on
> them).
This is very true, but I think I might be missing something about your
point. Are there places where intellectual property has similar laws
or policies?
<IANAL>
Both patent and copyright law have the concept of 'willful infringement' and 'proper notice'. Taking the right steps to make sure the person receiving your IP is aware of your copyright and patent rights can make them a willful infringer and subject to harsher penalties. Conversely, failure to use proper notices means you have less protection. (It used to be that the mere absence of a copyright notice would put your work in the public domain but that is no longer the case.)
If you obfuscate the code, the reader of the code cannot claim that you didn't mind if they read it. It makes your intent clear. While simply compiling source to byte codes obfuscates it to some extent, it doesn't send a clear message that you don't want them to read it. A notice at the front of the file saying that you don't want them to read it might be just as good as obfuscation from that standpoint.
</IANAL>
--- Bruce