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Ed Gerck wrote ...
>
> [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
>
> > I don't acknowledge that reverse engineering violates any
> right to privacy.
>
> Send someone a plaintext message in a postcard. If I read it, I can
> claim that I could not help but read it when I saw it -- so, I had
> no intent to break your privacy and you cannot prove otherwise.
>
I'm not sure that follows.
> However, if the message is encoded or encrypted and I manage
> to read the
> plaintext then I can no longer claim I had no choice and no
> intent. Actually,
> I must have spent time and work in order to break your
> privacy -- so, I must
> have done it with intent.
What does intent have to do with it?
>
> "Reverse engineering" is done with the intent to break the
> protection built
> into the product, between the user and the technology behind
> the software.
Reverse engineering is not done to break protection built into a
product; it is used to determine how a piece of code works. It is
taking machine readable code, and changing it into human readable
code. Just because a company RELIED on this unreadability for
protection of secrets doesn't make it illegal. If they wanted it to
be private, they would have encrypted it. I would say there are
quite a few more important reasons to reverse engineer software than
to "break protection"
> If this is done for your own private purposes and you tell no
> one, there is
> not even a way for the producer to reach you. However, if you are
> Microsoft and you reverse engineer code of a competitor (as
> MS did, with
> Stac -- 1994) and stealthly use it in your own Microsoft
> product (as MS
> did, in its DoubleSpace product) ... then, is that OK?
> Should that breach of
> privacy be allowed?
>
Just because reverse engineering CAN be used in a crime, doesn't mean
that it should be illegal itself. Any product or technique may be
used in a crime.
> Cheers,
>
> Ed Gerck
>
- -pete
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