[Python-Dev] Support for Encrypted Zip as python scripts (original) (raw)

Nick Coghlan ncoghlan at gmail.com
Mon Aug 24 05:15:25 CEST 2009

Guido van Rossum wrote:

OMG, the use case is actually running a script without giving the user access to the script's source? Agreed that's a big -1.

I thought it was just for running a zip containing code so secret you don't want to leave it around on your hard drive without encryption (say, the program you use to compute your employee's bonuses, or perhaps a patented algoritm for detecting spam). That use case would make a small amount of sense, though I personally don't care enough to write the code to support it.

Actually, the issue posting doesn't say either way - it doesn't provide any real use cases at all.

For local protection of confidential information there are already much better solutions out there (e.g. whole disk encryption, OS file permissions, OS folder encryption), so a poor-man's DRM was the only remaining remotely plausible use case I could see (and that's a bad idea for all the reasons that DRM is almost always a bad idea).

Now, that could just be a failure of imagination on my part, but genuine use case suggestions for the feature have been non existent so far.

Cheers, Nick.

-- Nick Coghlan | ncoghlan at gmail.com | Brisbane, Australia

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