I have some plugins written in python and create * .rhi files with Rhinoceros Script Compiler. My problem is that I want to prevent users from sharing that plugin (we only use it internally) using a license key for example. I tried searching on the forum but this issue doesn’t seem to be covered.
Welcome @GreyWolf,
Similar topics have popped up from time to time in the past and the conclusion pretty much always is that it is not possible, or rather too easy to circumvent to even try and set it up. Compiled C# Grasshopper components and dlls can be pretty easily decompiled, password-protected clusters are easy to break into, etc.
It’s an illusion! Can you make it harder, yes, but is it worth your time and money?
The best thing is probably to protect your stuff legally and go after each and every bastard that f***s with your intellectual property, at least that’s how the music and film industry tried to do it in the mid 2000s. Did it work? Well, probably not. 
You basically have to scare people into believing that you’ll come after them, if they mess with your weak copy protection. It’s a mind-game that possibly costs millions to social engineer, manipulate people into believing!
Anyways, check this out:
https://discourse.mcneel.com/search?q=protect
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I agree that there is no real protection…
But if you compile and obfuscate your code you can make it hard enough. If you build in a simple check, like asking if the current user has access to a certain user domain within a network, you can already solve the issue for 99.99 % of all GH user. Those who are able to identify and bypass this check on an obfuscated binary, are probably good enough to simply reimplement your plugin. But this is a quite rare group of people
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