Some programs have a key which varies from copy to copy. DVD
players fall in this category. When someone reversed the DVD
encryption earlier this year, the MPAA (DVD legal swat team) was
able to determine which copy of the software was cracked. They
were then able to enforce the license agreement for that software.
But your message asks a telling question. It is not a matter of
inserting other people's code into your software. Reverse
engineering figures out HOW it works and then makes it work the
SAME. It is not theft. It is construction... backwards from a
working model.
So, there is no need to prove where the code came from. It is
assured that it came from the reverse engineer. What is required
is to prove that the engineer could not have done what she did
without breaching conditions of sale.
The DVD/MPAA case revolved around whether the encryption
scheme was a trade secret. I don't know much more about it, but
a search on "DeCSS" will most certainly get you there.
The ability to "reverse engineer" something is a quality of our
intelligence and an inseparable part of being alive. Bunfights over
who should and shouldn't are symptoms of an unworkable
"command-and-control" mentality. The fight will cease only when
all parties stop keeping secrets and start sharing. Secrets create
a commodity which then becomes worth stealing. No secret = no
value = no crime.
I have been saying this for five years and it's starting to wear a little
thin on me so if you don't mind I will finish this message now before
my idealism is eclipsed by reality.
Stuart
Send reply to: "Tucana Forum" <[email protected]>
From: [email protected]
To: "Tucana Forum" <[email protected]>
Date sent: Tue, 7 Mar 2000 06:23:14 -0000
Subject: Re: Reverse Engineering
Priority: normal
> Tucana Forum - http://www.tucana.demon.co.uk >
> Just recently, every new agreement that I've read before installing
> new software has specified that reverse engineering is disallowed
> under its terms. I guess that brings it under contract law, but it
> must be a pretty unenforceable offence. How do you prove where
> the original lines of code for a new program came from?
>
>
> 17:56:02 Fri, 3 Mar 2000
> stu at stu <[email protected]> writes:
> >If such reverse engineering
> >>becomes illegal
>
> I don't see why reverse engineering as such should be illegal; surely
> what matters is intent to commit a breach of copyright or something
> like that?
>
> In the same way, in this country anyway, it is not illegal to use an
> assumed name, provided it is not done with any intent to use the
> 'false' name for the purposes of fraud or other such activity. --
> Martin Thompson [email protected] London, UK
>
> Home Page: http://www.tucana.demon.co.uk > Free Regular Income:
> http://www.virtualis.com/vr/mthomps4/vrp.html >
> "Everything I do and say with anyone makes a difference." Gita
> Bellin
>
>
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