Messages in this thread | | | From | "Slyglif Cain" <> | Subject | WIPO treaty | Date | Fri, 9 Oct 1998 19:14:52 -0700 |
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> From: Tim Smith <tzs@tzs.net> > Date: Fri, 9 Oct 1998 09:55:28 -0700 (PDT) > Subject: Re: [OT] RE: UDI and Free Software (fwd) > > On 9 Oct 1998 ketil@ii.uib.no wrote: > > Since long. In USA, reverse engineering in order to discover > > ``trade secrets'' is apparently illegal. Laws vary elsewhere, in > > particular, the EU allows reverse engineering in order to find > > out how things work. > > However, in the US, reverse engineering in order to discover > interfaces so you can interoperate with something has been approved > in the court cases I'm aware of, so provided one is careful (i.e., > make sure what one does corresponds to what the people who won > those court cases did), it should be possible to reverse engineer > to discover interfaces.
The US Senate passed the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA or WIPO) today. If accepted by the House, and signed by Clinton, reverse engineering for any reason (other then scholarly research for the next 2 years) will be illegal. It also gives the shrink-wrapped licenses more power, as it is an addition to the UCE (Microsoft could now say that if you want to sue them, you have to do so in Burma). Clinton has said he will sign it, and the House has already passed a similar version, so I would expect them to accept this as is.
===================================================================== // Chris Giard (a.k.a. Slyglif Cain) | I find my life is a lot // EMAIL: slyglif@magerealm.com | easier the lower I keep // URL: http://www.primenet.com/~slyglif | everyone's expectations. // ICQ: 4481627 | --Calvin 1992
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