Date stamp a stack

[Brian Yennie]

> Interesting idea. However, wouldn't that be similar to putting it  
> into a custom property? Someone could edit the script.

Not if you set the password of the stack -- then the script will be  
encrypted. A would-be hacker would have to hack into your application,  
discover the password, then apply the password to the document, then  
view the script. Seems like a lot of work versus just licensing your  
app, which is essentially the point.

Of course there are many, many ways to approach this but your approach  
seems reasonable to me and scripts are pretty secure if you're not  
hiding national security issues in there =).

If you want more layers, you could add additional encryption and/or  
obfuscation. For example, if you want to hide obvious mechanisms from  
prying eyes in your script, you could do something like:

on timeStampDocument tDoc
  set the script of stack tDoc to (the seconds)
  ...
end timeStampDocument

==>

on wiufbr hd
  do ("set the"&&pr()&&" of "&&st()&&hd&&"to ghfd()")
end wiufbr
...

Obviously this is not a "real" protection, but realistically it is one  
more layer preventing someone from doing a quick cost/benefit on  
hacking your app and coming out on top.

Generally my advice would be to use a decent ready-made encryption  
(such as comes with a password protected stack), and consider whether  
there are really any potential paying customers  who are willing to  
break that encryption -- and if so, are there so many as to make it  
worth investing additional money and time into protection schemes. If  
the answer is no, use the out-of-the-box stuff and invest the rest of  
your time into features =).

- Brian