Hi all,
I am wondering if someone has any ideas about the best way to add a time trail restriction into a java app and provide protection to reduce the chances of someone creating a workaround.
Currently I am only been thinking about obfuscator.
Thanks in advance
Are you consistently incorrectly spelling the word "trial" by any chance?
> ya probably thanks for the correction. I meant Time
> Trial.
Okay.
Well, this isn't really a very good idea. If you really want to use an obfuscator because it makes you feel better then do so.
But really if you think theft is going to be an issue you should not distribute your application at all.
thanks for the reply cotton.
What makes you say that obfuscator is not a good idea?
To be honest its my client thats really worried about theft. If it was up to me i would release it as GPL code and offer commercial licensing.
because obfuscators don't work. Or rather they do work but it's utterly pointless as anyone reasonably versed in their trade can read the resulting code anyway.
Similarly not a single means of "protecting" your code through technical means (in any language, not just Java) works.
In fact, the more such means you employ the more determined the hardcore ******* will be to find out what deep secrets are hidden in there.
Anything can be decompiled. And anyone with enough skill will be able to read the results and interpret them into something that can be used to remove whatever protection you thought to employ.
Again if theft is a concern then all you can do is not distribute your code or compiled classes in any form.
By this I mean make the app a web application. Then the code resides on the application server, which if it is under your control means that it can't be stolen.
In your case though if it's just to appease the client then you could just use an obfuscator. It will make theft more difficult, it just doesn't make it impossible.
