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From: gbeary@uswat.uswest.com ( Greg Beary )
Newsgroups: misc.legal,comp.software-eng
Subject: Re: Should software ideas be protected? (Was Re: Software Copyright Law
Keywords: European Community, copyright, reverse engineering
Message-ID: <7206@uswat.UUCP>
Date: 10 Apr 90 21:43:45 GMT
References: <1093@goofy.UUCP> <14867@s.ms.uky.edu> <1990Apr8.003410.9841@ncsuvx.ncsu.edu>
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There was a good article on the legality of reverse engineering 
software in the December (I think) issue of IEEE Software. I 
may be foggy in my recollections, but here goes. The author 
was a professor at CMU and specialized in the area of Intellectual
Property Rights. She seemed to indicate that reverse engineering 
by dis-assembly etc, is perfectly legal. You are attempting to 
gather the specifications for a product by inspecting it. 
She also (I beleive it was a she) mentioned that if software	
was delivered in source form, the way a book is, the issues may
be different. I came away with the impression that as long as 
you did not plagerize, ie. copy the executable exactly, anything
that you were doing was legal. 

It's been a while since I read the article, and I couldn't find
it to quote it exactly. It made for very interesting reading 
and really clarified what the issues were. By the way, this 
pertained to software practices IN AMERICA. I beleive the 
original poster mentioned the EEC. There I'm sure you'll find
very different rules, issues, and practices based upon local
established customs and tradition. 

--
Greg Beary