Gary,
first this depends on the jurisdiction under which Loren works. Furthermore
it depends on what is disassembled. The act of reverse engineering is
usually confused with the combination of both reverse engineering +
re-engineering, the latter being the act of using the results gained from RE
to do … what? There we have the next thing: if you are just about to
provide compatibility (e.g. with a file format) you can do this in the EU
without any problems, if you are going to copy code or (patent protected)
algorithms you may get into trouble.
Quote from Eldad Eilam’s book: “Reversing - Secrets of Reverse Engineering”
(2005) from chapter 1.
**Is Reversing Legal?**
The legal debate around reverse engineering has been going on for years. It
usually revolves around the question of what social and economic impact
reverse engineering has on society as a whole. Of course, calculating this
kind of impact largely depends on what reverse engineering is used for. The
following sections discuss the legal aspects of the various applications of
reverse engineering, with an emphasis on the United States.
It should be noted that it is never going to be possible to accurately
predict beforehand whether a particular reversing scenario is going to be
considered legal or not - that depends on many factors. Always seek legal
counsel before getting yourself into any high-risk reversing project. The
following sections should provide general guidelines on what types of
scenarios should be considered high risk.
*Interoperability*
[…]
*Competition*
When used for interooperability, reverse engineering clearly benefits
society because it simplifies (or enables) the development of new and
improved technologies. When reverse engineering is used in the development
of competing products, the situation is slightly more complicated. Opponents
of reverse engineering usually claim that reversing stifles innovation
because developers of new technologies have little incentive to invest in
research and development if their technologies can be easily “stolen” by
competitors through reverse engineering. […]
*Copyright Law*
[…] As I described earlier, in software there is a very fine line between
directly stealing a competitor’s code and reimplementing it. […]
*Trade secrets*
[…] A trade secret legally protects the developer from cases of
“trade-secret misappropriation” such as having a rogue employee sell the
secret to a competitor. However, a product’s being a trade-secret does not
protect its owner in cases where the competitor reverse engineers the
owner’s product, assuming that the product is available on the open market
and is obtained legitimately. Having a trade secret also offers no
protection in the case of competitors independently inventing the same
technology - that’s exactly what patents are for.
*The Digital Millenium Copyright Act*
[…] Still, what exactly is prohibited under the DCMA?
- Circumvention of copyright protection systems: […]
- The development of circumvention technologies: […]
Luckily, the DCMA makes several exceptions in which circumvention is
allowed. Here is a brief examination of each of the exemptions provided in
the DCMA:
- Interoperability: […]
- Encryption research: […]
- Security testing: […]
- Educational institutions and public libraries: […]
- Government investigation: […] are not affected by the DCMA.
- Regulation: […] may be reversed for the purpose of controlling minor’s
use of the Internet.
- Protection of privacy: […]
*DCMA Cases*
[…]
*License Agreement Considerations*
In light of the fact that other then the DCMA there are no laws that
directly prohibit or restrict reversing, and that the DCMA only applies to
DRM products or to software that contains DRM technologies, software vendors
add anti-reverse-engineering clauses to shrink-wrap software license
agreements. That’s that very lengthy document you are always told to
“accept” when installing practically any software product in the world. It
should be noted that in most cases just using a program provides the legal
equivalent of signing its license agreement (assuming that the user is given
an opportunity to view it).
The main legal question around reverse-engineering clauses in license
agreements is whether they are enforceable. In the U.S., there doesn’t seem
to be a single, authorative answer to this question - it all depends on the
specific circumstances in which reverse engineering is undertaken. In the
European Union this issue has been clearly defined by the Directive on the
Legal Protection of Computer Programs [EC1]. This directive defines that
decompilation of software programs is permissible in cases of
interoperability. The directive overrides any shrink-wrap license
agreements, at least in this matter.
*Code Samples & Tools*
[…]
*Conclusion*
In this chapter, we introduced the basic ground rules for reversing. We
discussed some of the most popular applications of reverse engineering and
the typical reversing process. We introduced the types of tools that are
commonly used by reversers and evaluated the legal aspects of the process.
Armed with this basic understanding of what it is all about, we head on to
the next chapter, which provide an overview of the technical basics we must
be familiar with before we can actually start reversing.
Well, that are the most important parts. Get the book, it’s worth its price
Oliver
–
May the source be with you, stranger
ICQ: #281645
URL: http://assarbad.net
My take is that the patent lawyers don’t have the tools to handle