Background
One of the obvious concerns in Flash developer community is the threat of intellectual property theft. In this highly competitive environment, anyone with the mechanized assistance of a good decompiler can inspect the artwork and ActionScript code in your elaborately designed Flash files. It is possible and easy for a competitor to crib your work, if not copy outright, without your permission. For many Flash artists and programmers who create commercial multimedia productions, this annoying issue is becoming a major headache.
Defense
A potent technical defense against such reverse engineering attacks is code obfuscation. It is a process that makes compiled script unintelligible(breaking down decompilers) but still functional(working well with flash players).
Legal vs Technical
Of course, reverse engineering attacks may be dissuaded by legal means. However, it is generally difficult to track down intellectual property piracies. Moreover, legal defenses are not always feasible or economical. We believe that "self-help" technical defenses will continue to be important for any developer who has a serious concern about intellectual property compromise.
Impossibilities and Possibilities
As the SWF specification is open, it's theoretically impossible to devise 100% secure solutions to protect ActionScript. However, by using a good obfuscator it's feasible to make people think they'd better buy your Flash production and service than spend more expenses and time on cracking it. Now we're striving hard to make ASO a good and the best protector for ActionScript.
