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Re: code mangler

At 2:01 am +0100 30/10/04, Brad BARCLAY <email@hidden> wrote: 

On Oct 29, 2004, at 12:11, Scott Palmer wrote:

  I don't know what your legal options would be if someone took code
 that you went and showed them, versus code that they had to actively
 discover through reverse engineering (however easy or difficult it
 would be), but perhaps the former is easier to defend.


	Your legal options are the exact same as for people who work in the
printed word business.  You can't "compile" a book -- so by default you
get the "source code".

	If someone violates your copyrights by copying some of your work into
their own books, you can take them to court and sue for damages (in
most countries, at least).  Source code is no different.

I'm sure that's true in a strictly legal sense, but relying solely on copyright protection if the source is too readily available is not sufficient in my opinion (assuming you have something you want to protect of course). First you have to learn that somebody else out there seems to be using your software, then you would need to analyse their code to prove it (possibly breaking laws on reverse engineering yourself in the process!), and then you would have to take them to court and win a case there. All of which are likely to require huge effort and expense, with no guarantee of success. And their theft could be quite subtle, just an algorithm or technique that they then recode slightly differently so it's not a direct copy, making it even more difficult to prove.

Like all security, you need protection at multiple levels, so you're not relying on just one mechanism (whether copyright or obfuscation or anything else).

So... anyone here know of any good open source encrypting class loaders for Mac OS X, preferably using C++ and JNI? :-)

-Rolf

--
Rolf Howarth, Square Box Systems Ltd, Stratford-upon-Avon UK.
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