Ask HN: Best way(s) to distribute a self-hosted, non-compiled product

Say you have a product written in Ruby, Python, PHP etc. and you would like to distribute it as a self-hosted solution.

What are the best ways to go about doing this without having to worry about people ripping off your code?

I assume answers will fall into some of the following categories:

- compile/obfuscate code (i.e. cpython)

- submit product as a virtual image (like github enterprise)

- just don't care and rely on your bundled licenses

Each has their own up/down sides. Discuss. :)