[Python-Dev] LSB: pyc stability (original) (raw)

Neil Toronto ntoronto at cs.byu.edu
Mon Dec 4 20:21:27 CET 2006

Martin v. Löwis wrote:

Brett Cannon schrieb:

Did they say why they wanted to distribute bytecode files? I assume it is either for space considerations or they think it will help to protect their IP somehow.

It's to protect the IP (i.e. for proprietary software). They are aware of decompyle, but still consider byte-code only distribution of their code necessary for protection.

It sounds like a trade secret issue. You have to take reasonable measures to protect trade secrets in order for them to be legally recognized as such. I wouldn't be surprised if compiling to bytecode counts. There are similar provisions in copyright due to the DMCA (which seems to require nothing stronger than, say, ROT26), but I don't think this is the right context for that.

Space considerations shouldn't be much of an issue, since you can (and should in many cases) distribute your code in a ZIP file, and code compresses quite well. Can Python import modules from encrypted ZIP files? That'd be an interesting way to protect a trade secret, and probably safer (in the courts) than distributing bytecode.

Neil

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