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This comes up in just about every talk on HTML5 to general app and game developers. People reasonably want to know how their application code and content will b
by mmahemoff 15y ago
This comes up in just about every talk on HTML5 to general app and game developers. People reasonably want to know how their application code and content will be protected. Some points:
* The best form of protection lies outside the code. There are a million Twitter clones out there, so Twitter's value lies not in the source code. It's in the service, branding, and user base.
* You can indeed obfuscate code. It's true though that DRM is not as acceptable as Flash (which is security by obscurity anyway) to content owners. People are working on this, e.g. the various JavaScript crypto standards.
* Fortunately, the people who will outright steal your code are rarely the people you have to worry about. They usually can't innovate (though there are exceptions to be sure) and will always be following behind you.
- ble 15y agoObfuscation is perhaps DRM, but a very specific subset of DRM. Obfuscation: "I will provide a functional copy of my code that is not (human) reader-friendly; I want people to execute my code but present a barrier to extensive understanding or modification of its implementation." When someone says DRM, I usually think of its least pleasant incarnations- platform lockdown software that must be installed to play a game or (interestingly) take a test, content that may only be accessed after phoning home and verifying that one is in good standing with the rights holder, etc. To my mind, JS obfuscation protects IP in a way that more closely resembles compilation.
- mmahemoff 15y agoWell, I was referring to obfuscation as a means of protecting the code part, and DRM as protecting the content part. But true, it's a fine line between the two.