Michal Suchanek
10/17/2008 10:46:00 AM
On 17/10/2008, Ryan Davis <ryand-ruby@zenspider.com> wrote:
>
> On Oct 16, 2008, at 23:10 , Sasha Bee wrote:
>
>
> > Could you suggest anything real to protect the Ruby code? We are still
> > working on our project and we use Ruby for it and need to protect the
> > code. We are still searching for a good solution for it. We are not just
> > Ruby enthusiasts and we are doing a real project. I wish we choose C to
> > develop our product and then have no problems in protecting the code.
> > But we use Ruby now for many reasons...
> >
>
> no, not really... anything that has ruby objects and ruby methods involved
> can be popped wide open. If I can get my grubby paws on it, I can play with
> it
>
>
> > We do not want any conversions like Ruby to C or JRuby. We do not need
> > or want Java for its slowness. (We just do not need Java - don't want to
> > get into a battle with Java fans :) And also we understand there is no
> > ideal 100% proved protection solutions for any language. I know there
> > are some good encoders for PHP but what do we have for Ruby?
> >
>
> there is zenobfuscate which translates to C, that prevents my above
> statement from occurring... as others have pointed out, if you are just
> munging source, you're doing nothing... nothing at all to protect things.
> encryption? it needs to be decrypted in order to run and then you're dealing
> with my original claim again...
>
> I don't know of any other method than removing the ruby source entirely.
>
Remember DOS games? These employed many baroque copy protection
schemes including specially formatted or perhaps even specially
manufactured floppies so that nobody could make a copy with standard
software or even any standard floppy drive. Still the popular ones
were disassembled and circulated without the protection, and the lame
ones forgotten.
So if your software is worth anything you can only reasonably protect
it by selling it as service hosted on servers protected both in
software and physically.
If you just want people paying money for using your software forget
protection. It's just additional effort and if you are lucky it does
not get in your way too much. Sell the software for price that people
who are likely going to use it can afford, and make the payment method
an easy one.
Also services like support and customization help getting some money
from your users.
If your application is that lame that anybody looking at the source
would run away screaming in horror then you probably need a better
coder.
I guess that's pretty much all that can be said about code protection.
Thanks
Michal