Contract Case Could Hurt Reverse Engineering

An anonymous reader writes "InfoWorld has an article about how a 'U.S. Supreme Court decision could call into question a common practice among software companies: studying competitors' products to improve their own offerings.'"

Re:It's about time

[TallEmu]

I'm all in favour of that!

Before running this VIRUS you must accept the terms of our End User Licence agreement.

[Accept] [Decline]

Re:It's about time

[l0ungeb0y]

What if someone slaps a EULA on a virus, and then sues anti-virus researchers?

Well, so far M$'s legal department has the first half covered. Rumour has it that they are backing SCO in attempt at the other half.

Ridiculous...

[tinrobot]

At the rate we're going, Ford won't be allowed to take apart Chevys to see how they work... McDonald's employees will be jailed when they eat at Burger King... and software engineers who look at competitor's interfaces will be blinded with hot irons.

Try fake money.

[Ayanami Rei]

Draw a picture of a dead president on a piece of green paper, then cut it out into a rectangular shape. It's about twice as long as it is wide.

Shrink wrap it with a EULA that the fare collector must accept the contents as legal tender. If he claims your bill is fake when he puts it up to a light, tell him that he can't reverse engineer your money, or risk a civil suit.

Problem solved.

Ninjas...

[Anonymous Coward]

I suggest including a ninja in every box of software who will keep a watchful eye on the binaries in case they are being reverse-engineered.

Because ninjas are terribly hard to notice for the untrained eye, they could easily lurk about the computer area (be it in a bedroom or a corporate cube farm).

Once someone tries to "have his way" with the binary, BAM, the ninja will bust out, drive a few ninja stars through the computer, and vanish in a puff of smoke.

I'm a fucking genius.

EULA on DNA

[Rumbler]

I think I'll put an EULA on my DNA, so that I can sue anyone that tries to reverse engineer my genes. Then, when genetic-based drugs become the norm, I'll sue for EULA violation.

When they tell me that the genome was mapped before my EULA, I'll simply reply that I'm a recently released version (into adulthood).

I'll also release a seperate EULA to all potential girlfriends, stating explicitly what fair-use (or should I say, fair play?) entails when handling my hard and software. Because, you know, the Ladies LOVE a sexy EULA.

Yes... Yes.

Re:Ridiculous...

[rjamestaylor]

• and software engineers who look at competitor's interfaces will be blinded with hot irons.

We must plug the analog holes!

New Names for Gears

[Anonymous Coward]

How about Walk, Trot, Canter and Gallop? Or would you get sued by a horse?

Re:It's about time

[nathanh]

Reverse engineering is nothing more than the common theft of intelectual property. When yo look at someone's compiled code, you are seeing that which you were not meant to see. There's a reason all these companies have NDA's. They don't want people to see their code. And then to have their competitor down the street disassemble the shipped product. Well, it's pure theft, and nothing more or less. The only reason the competitor could possibly have for dissassembling the binary code would be to copy it for their own benefit.

No! It's not theft. It's fraud!

No! It's not fraud. It's murder!

No! It's not murder. It's embezzlement!

Oh, sorry, I thought we were playing the "use the wrong word" game.

I'm going to go murder an MP3 or two before I embezzle Windows XP.

Re:Missed the point...

[RickHunter]

Does the US have a concept of inalienable rights?

Yes. Unfortunately, they were found to have entered the country from Europe without a proper VISA, and were thus alien rights. They were deported in the mid-80s, and no-one in America has seen them since. Recent reports from the Department of Homeland Security and the White House suggest that they may be working with secret Euro-terrorist cells in Lichenstein, developing WMDs to be used to conquer the world, or possibly just rain on the President's parade.