PROTECTING SOFTWARE FROM UNAUTHORIZED USE BY CONVERTING SOURCE CODE MODULES TO BYTE CODES

A method for anti-piracy protection of a software application by obfuscation of the execution of portions of the applications code is described. The method comprises providing a language specification and library to implement the functions of the language, providing a compiler to translate the language into byte codes, and providing an interpreter to execute the byte codes using the library. The method further comprises providing the language specifications, library, compiler, interpreter, and instructions to a software publisher, wherein the software publisher embeds the library and interpreter in the application to be protected, and selects and prepares application code segments for processing into byte codes by the compiler. The application is then executed using the embedded library and interpreter, wherein the execution of the application is obfuscated by the use of byte codes.A further aspect of the invention is to provide the compiler, interpreter, and library functions on a secure server, giving the language specification and only limited instructions to the publisher for preparation of the application for protection processing, for the purpose of preventing a hacker from studying the operation of the toolset.