How to protect the source code?

[joserobjr 0]

I'm writing an advanced mining robot on a server that I play and I want to sell it to other players, I've been working on it many hours in 2 weeks so I really want to receive a reward for it on the server. I'll be selling robots ready to go and dedicated for my software, I'm planning to release the source code in future but until there I don't want to see pirated floppy disks being sold cheaper

 

I thought about fleshing an EEPROM or running it directly on init.lua (I don't really need the OpenOS to execute the software, it's independent) but other players could easily steal the EEPROM on a crafting grid or could steal the HD using an disassembler.

 

What can I do? Any Idea?

 

 

--- Edit:

I've got an idea!

I can use a mix of EEPROM with obfuscated code, a HD in unmanaged mode with fragmented data and obfuscated codes and component ID checks. So the EEPROM won't work without that specific HD and the code won't be readable by humans, the HD won't work without the EEPROM, each EEPROM and HD pairs will be unique and linked to each other, the scripts will require original components (HDs, GPU, wireless, etc) to run. I think that will be enough to protect the original source but I'm still open for ideas

Edited May 21, 2016 by joserobjr

[TYKUHN2 2]

Depending on the size of the code, it can ensure using components, that it is run on the same HDD and Turtle that it was originally made for via component addresses. Also to prevent it from being read, obfuscating works, but also does string.dump() which is human unreadable and basically uneditable without destroying the code.

 

If the code is small, EEPROM based coding could work but it must be under 4KiB

[joserobjr 0]

Thank you TYKUHN2,

 

I thought about using string.dump() before and some lua obfuscators use it to obfuscate but I couldn't find a way to load the data, stringload() does not exists and load() is limited to read only text.

[TYKUHN2 2]

Ah I should have read the fine print, disabled by default. Yeah I guess obfuscating is the best way you can do it. I would probably also asymmetrically encrypt the hardware IDs if you can manage that.

[Gorzoid 10]

Try not to go too overkill with this, as someone may end it taking it as a challenge to crack it.

[TYKUHN2 2]

If you want to go overkill asymmetrically encrypt the entire thing. They'll pay you for the code, and if they try to modify it they will end up damaging it beyond working.

[GreaseMonkey 7]

First things first, I assume you're selling it for in-game currency and not real money?

With that said, you could do some form of Software as a Service thing in-game - all the robots are actually dumb slaves and the logic is handled by a master server.

But the easiest solution is to use the robot's component address as an encraption key.

[jhagrid77 4]

I have to say, this is one of my favorite topics I have read. I think a "Software Protection" area should exist on the forum for members to help each other with things like this.

[nezd 2]

Maybe something with hash?