Questions tagged [law]

Please keep in mind legal questions may better fit the Law stack exchange site at http://law.stackexchange.com and consider posting them there

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Is reverse engineering and using parts of a closed source application legal?

Is it legal to reverse engineer certain features of a closed source application and then integrate those features into a closed or open source application that may be either a commercial or non-...
asheeshr's user avatar
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23 votes
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When is applying reverse engineering techniques acceptable? [closed]

You all know there are people out there that use reverse engineering techniques to do bad things; this ranges from being able to use paid software for free (cracker) to finding vulnerabilities that ...
Tamara Wijsman's user avatar
12 votes
5 answers
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Is it legal to sell clean room engineered products?

The clean room technique is : First, a team of engineers study the software and describe everything it does as completely as possible without using or referencing any actual code. Then, a ...
asheeshr's user avatar
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11 votes
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Are the EU laws preventing reverse engineering of software products?

Would it be legal to decompile and/or reverse engineer a commercial java JAR file to view the inner workings of a library in order to write original code for use with the library in the EU or UK?
Jesson Atherton's user avatar
6 votes
1 answer
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Is reverse engineering legal?

Few weeks ago, I started reverse engineering libraries and binaries from a commercial copyrighted product (a game). And, I would like to post the code on an open source platform like GitHub. I've ...
Avo18's user avatar
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5 votes
1 answer
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Is nVidia Linux driver reverse engineering legal in Europe?

How does nvidia linux driver eula, especially sections 2.1.3 and 5. play with European Union Directive on the legal protection of computer programs? I think somebody would have already done that and ...
user3313119's user avatar
4 votes
0 answers
456 views

Legality of publishing decompiled code

The situation is the following: Binary file of a computer game from the 1980s. The binary file ran on a platform that doesn't exist anymore (not x86). The binary file does not contain any symbols or ...
trunklop's user avatar
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3 votes
1 answer
591 views

Is it legal to publish details on how to reverse engineer a non commercial game?

Say I used a game engine and made a game (from scratch on my own). Further, I provide details on how to reverse engineer my game, including methods and details. Two questions. Is it legal to do that? ...
111's user avatar
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3 votes
2 answers
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Is it legal to publicly post about security issues without informing the provider first (in Europe)? [closed]

Do I have to contact the producer of a software before publicly posting (Twitter, Blog, ...) about security issues of it? Does it matter how this knowledge was acquired (reverse engineering, sniffing ...
muffel's user avatar
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3 votes
1 answer
199 views

What are the legal issues when trying to reverse a mass transit ticketing system?

Following the question about "How to set-up a lab for reversing a mass transit ticketing system?", I would like to know what are the legal issues about setting up such a lab. It seems clear that, ...
perror's user avatar
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2 votes
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Legality of Decompilation [duplicate]

How "legal" is it to read and edit .exe files, .dll files, and other compiled source files? Decompilation is taking the compiled code of a program, often minified and obfuscated, and trying to get the ...
trysis's user avatar
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1 answer
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What are the legal consequences of reverse engineering a program and telling the creator how you did it?

I'm just curious. What if someone were to crack a program to get past a registration window/process and then bring this vulnerability to light? Can the owner/creator prosecute you for doing so, even ...
Keithers's user avatar
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2 votes
1 answer
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Can I distribute instructions on how to extract a private key? [closed]

I'm writing an open-source node.js library that lets people control some hardware, mostly for use in home automation systems. The messages to and from the hardware are AES encrypted, but I was able to ...
Grayda's user avatar
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1 vote
0 answers
72 views

Is there a technique that would allow me to make an OPEN SOURCE driver legally in Europe

The driver provided by the phone manufacturer doesn't expose both of my front cameras to third party apps and doesn't allow any third party app to record 4K video, so I think that interoperability is ...
Martin's user avatar
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1 vote
0 answers
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Legal Reverse Engineering for Security Review in US for Korean Provided Module

My company has received a command-line stand-alone (ELF) executable from a Korean company that provides a service for validating Korean users. It took them a few tries to get us a version that runs on ...
NathanC's user avatar
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1 vote
0 answers
144 views

Is Dynamic Binary Instrumentation legal in UK/EU for malware analysis?

I am doing a university project about performing malware analysis on binary files. The end goal would be to analyze real world executables(Microsoft Office installation file for example). If I use DBI,...
mountainspring65's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
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Reading logs of commercial app and legality

Shortly, there is cheap chinese bluetooth lamp that can change colors by app on Android. I am basically reading communication logs on my phone and retrieving communication protocols of the app. Then,...
Roman Lutai's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
583 views

Which countries allow reverse engineering for one of their licences when it permits unlimited software copying, & doesn't forbid reverse engineering?

I was under the impression that reverse engineering can mainly be legally prohibited in two ways: via copyright law forbidding the making of copies; and via an end-user licence agreement (EULA) ...
user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
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Reverse Engineering Grocery Software API

Introduction So I have a peer to peer app that allows customers to request jobs at their own price and have the job fulfilled by a freelancer in the community. The common jobs requested as of recent ...
Solomon Antoine's user avatar
-1 votes
1 answer
151 views

Reverse engineering and copyright?

I am surprised this question is not asked by anyone else yet. Legally, which software -- aside from open source software -- am I able to explore to basically enhance my knowledge of how computer ...
ToraneHS's user avatar