I am a new software developer and I wish to sell my software. I recently realize
ID: 655039 • Letter: I
Question
I am a new software developer and I wish to sell my software. I recently realized that from C++ code we can not stop the user seeing parts of the code that are related to scripts or system commands.
Would you make some comments on how software written in C++/JAVA (distributed via CD-ROMs or available via download) is protected from reverse engineering, scanners for when the code is in memory and direct copy of parts (as system commands).
What a small software company which just starts producing software should do to protect its product from the technological point of view (it should not be able to pay legal fees
Explanation / Answer
I've been writing software for many years and 2 decades ago I used to think along the lines that you're describing and try and work out ways to protect my software.
To answer your question: Software protection is done through encryption and obfuscation just like data protection. The shortfalls, as you described, is that much code is very difficult to protect and usually relatively easy to reverse engineer.
One way to protect your code (from decompiling) is to never release a compiled version of it and always run it from a server and your consumers use a client such as a browser. That does not however protect you from reverse engineering.
The defense, in my opinion, is to not waste cycles (time/money) trying to protect your code but rather be continually innovating and adding more value to your product over time. If a competitor got hold of your code and took (say) 1 month to decompile it and released a competing product then you should be a step ahead of them with your next feature or next product by that time.
Spending time and effort to block out your competition by keeping everything secret would be better spent by encouraging your team to be innovative and stay ahead of the competition.
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