Author: Greg Simpson
Date: 07:56:53 01/22/06
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On January 22, 2006 at 09:26:17, Walter Faxon wrote: >On January 22, 2006 at 00:18:52, Robert Hyatt wrote: > >>On January 20, 2006 at 17:23:00, Uri Blass wrote: >> >>> >>>It is illegal to do it. >>>I doubt if all of them do not respect the law. >>> >> >> >>You and others keep saying this. But it is _not_ true. Please cite any U.S. >>or international law that specifically and explicitly makes this a criminal act. >> "reverse-engineering" has been adjudicated as perfectly legal in both US and >>international courts. One can't "copy" the code due to copyright. But one can >>certainly read, study, and learn from it... > > >No expert on the law but... > >(1) I don't know about the case of Rybka, but usually the terms of sale prohibit >reverse-engineering. So doing so is a tort if not a crime. > >(2) If you make a human-readable copy, that is a "derivative work" which is a >violation of copyright. Anything you thus "learn from it" and then use (or post >about) is also derivative. > >(3) In the U.S. the DMCA prohibits use of methods to get unauthorized access to >any copyrighted work. Felony. A disassembler used to help has been held by a >court to be a "burglary tool". > >(4) Before the DMCA the only exceptions that U.S. courts have allowed regard the >need for other programs to interface the subject program. Rybka uses the >standard UCI protocol and has no other interface requirements. > >Perhaps you ought to talk to your University's lawyer before posting on this >subject again. > >-W I'm pretty sure I never agreed to an EULA when I downloaded the Rybka beta, so there would be no license violation. Speaking of unethical, many people consider licenses that prohibit reverse engineering or disassembly to be unethical. As far as I know, the DCMA only applies if some means of protection is being circumvented, and Rybka does not seem to have any.
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