[sane-devel] Re: Is reverse engineering legal ?

[Paul F. Johnson]

Hi,

> > No, I don't include ASM in my program. I just inspect
> > ASM to understand USB logs, and I write my personnal C
> > code that "imitate" what ASM does.
> 
> Yeah. And they can claim that they developed the algorithms and thus
> you're violating their Copyright. By actually looking at their code
> you're "tainted".

Depends on if you're in the EU or not. In the EU, if either the company has
gone to the wall or the software will not work on your specific hardware, you
can (in some circumstances) reverse engineer the source to fix it. IANAL, but
looking at logs doesn't taint anyone - logs just tell you what messages have
been sent, nothing about the code etc.
 
> Ultimately, it's your choice (and possibly problem). I wouldn't do it
> that way for the given reasons.

That's always the choice. I know I've reverse engineered the odd scanner &
printer or three, released the source and nothing has happened (I even offered
it to the company who made the scanner!)

TTFN

Paul
-- 
"Logic, my dear Zoe, is merely the ability to be wrong with authority" - Dr
Who