Does copy protection make sense for a free app?
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/12777423
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05-07-2021 - |
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My free app is occupying 2x space on the device, because it has copy protection enabled, in Google Play.
I didn't enable this. I'm wondering if it's necessary. The 2x space is very negative and I would like to disable it.
I know also that copy protection is deprecated, and LVM encouraged instead, but I don't know if that's usable for my use case. Maybe I just have to disable copy protection.
There's probably no reason besides wanting to protect the code? But I don't think I have any abnormally, outstanding code there, only good programming and some clever tricks :)
So does it make any sense, in my case, to use copy protection / LVM or do I just disable it?
To protect the code a bit maybe only obfuscate with ProGuard?
Solution
Especially with the ease of rooting a device and copying it anyway, obfuscation is your friend here, especially if copy protection is making your app sp much larger. And copy protecting a free app is kinda pointless anyway, no? I'd just disable it, and obfuscate if you're worried.
OTHER TIPS
Neither copy protection nor obfuscation will help against determined attacker with some skills and cheap time. I would be more worried and embarassed if nobody copied my free application ( basucally I have no problem with it unless somebody tries to steal copyright - but I make my money with programming for money, so apps are my showcase)
People who use good programming and clever tricks are usually eager to share their knowledge with the community. Concealing them won't make you neither happy nor rich.
I see very little point in using any kind of protection.
Copy protection is usually used to prevent unauthorized copying which basically means 1 purchase 10 installs. If your app is free, there's no point of using any type of copy protection because you do not really care where people got your app from. So neither obsolete Play's mechanism, nor LVL nor anything else of that type is of any use in case of free app like yours.
