[sane-devel] Legal Aspects

[Till Kamppeter]

Ullrich Sigwanz wrote:
> QUESTION: Is reverse engineering of hardware protocols legal at all?
> 
> 
> EPKOWA (e.g.) state in their License agreement, that ....
> 
>   ...You may neither reverse engineer, reverse compile, reverse
>      assemble nor otherwise attempt to analyse those parts of the
>      Program that were provided to you in executable or object code
>      only.....
>

You are not allowed to reverse-engineer the PROGRAM's source code
(uncompiling or so), this has nothing to do with the device's PROTOCOL.
If you obtain the protocol by a USB or Ethernet sniffer, you do not
violate the above-mentioned paragraph.

   Till