So for example one could:
1. Put all the compiled Python bytecode in an encrypted binary file. 2. Build a small binary executable (.exe file) that: 2a. Reads the binary file. 2b. Decrypts it to conventional Python byte code. 2c. Embeds a Python interpreter. 2d. Executes the bytecode with the embedded Python. 3. Link the executable with a licence manager such as flexlm. I think that should be rather safe (but I could be wrong). A really malicious customer/cracker could e.g. look in the exe-file and extract the crypto key. Then he (or less likely she) could guess which crypto algorithm you have used, and decrypt the bytecode. The cracker could then decompile the bytecode to Python VM opcodes, and use that to reverse engineer your program. One could make it more difficult for the cracker by asking each customer for a hardware hash and use that for crypto. That way the key would not be (completely) visible in the exe file. But history has shown that one can never safeguard a program 100% against humans with malicious intent. I know of no DRM system that has never been circumvented. -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
