Protect Python Source

[Gerson Kurz]

On Fri, 01 Nov 2002 08:57:35 GMT, Alex Martelli <aleax at aleax.it>
wrote:

>But in general, you should rely on
>the law to protect your programs against unauthorized use, not on
>illusory "protection".  "Security through obscurity isn't".

Lets imagine this: you are a small company of specialists that writes
some python module. You are in direct company with a big, possibly
very big company. They do not have any experts in your area (they are
a big company, so they do lots of stuff besides the area you are in).
So, they just take your code, because its readily available - the
source is right there in the installed directory. Chances are that
you, the small company, will never live long enough to see the end of
a lawsuit. Plus, lawsuits can be very *very* expensive. Plus, if
you're a big company, chances are your lawyers are just more and
better than mine. Plus, the best thing you can expect to come out from
a lawsuit against a big company is - an agreement. Does the term
Microsoft anti-monopoly lawsuit ring a bell? 

So, poof goes the fine license. 

I'm not assuming that code cannot be "cracked" - I'm just thinking
that making it *that* easy doesn't exactly help.

As for a solution, I've toyed around with a import hook that reads
data from encrypted files some time ago, but haven't followed up on it
lately. Encrypted files are enough to stop "casual" cracking - which
is sufficient for the above mentioned goal.