I ask this question because I couldn't find the answer I was looking for but simply put is there anything in place in the app store to prevent stolen code? I notice that there are a lot of clones on android which made me wonder whether they are directly ripped off or just so easy to replicate that they end up cloned. Can people just simply download the apk file and reverse engineer it?
Is there anything google has in place that prevents this, or if there isn't, is there anyway that I myself can prevent it or make it more difficult for people wanting to steal my code?
I'm still new to Java and learning so it will be a while before I start this, but the project I have in mind will consume a large chunk of what little spare time that I have for a while, so I don't want to put a lot of time into it without proper measures only to have it stolen and sold for someone else's profit in a week.
If this has been answered before whether on this site or another please point me to there and delete this if necessary.
Well, you can do code obfuscation, so that on de-compiling the code, the logic is not obvious, so hard to maintain.
You can use the free version i.e. ProGuard or much powerful professional version DexGuard.
Here is an example which shows how to configure ProGuard when you are using libraries. Retrofit+ProGuard.