cwg

I know that obfuscation is not 'safe', and that there's always a way to decompile Java bytecode. But still, I have the feeling that I should do something to discourage enterprising users to decompile our code.

I have experimented with some Java bytecode obfuscators, and for whatever reason, they make the end result crash a lot. Now, I could probably dive into the inner workings of these obfuscators and somehow make it work, but it got me thinking: Does obfuscation actually make sense?

My thinking is that decompilation would be interesting to two groups of people: Those who want to crack the licensing mechanism, and the competition.

For the first group, I know there's probably nothing that will stop them. I have other means in place to discourage casual piracy, but I know there's no absolute security, and I don't plan to enforce that strictly (for the cost of unnerving paying users).

For the second group, my hunch is that it probably doesn't matter as well. If competitors can gain an advantage by looking at my (decompiled) source code, probably my business model is not robust enough, and I should rather be outperforming them, and stay ahead of the game.

What is your take on obfuscation? Does it make sense, and when so?

All your input is very appreciated!

Some background: We are working on a desktop application developed in Java / Swing, which is geared towards the enterprise market. Since the potential market is quite large and diverse, we want to make our app available as a trial version for download from our website.