Re: software protection and licensing question

From: Walter Roberson (roberson_at_ibd.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca)
Date: 01/10/04 

Date: 10 Jan 2004 21:34:10 GMT

In article <btpi19$qr5$1@string.physics.ubc.ca>,
Bill Unruh <unruh@string.physics.ubc.ca> wrote:
:"Arthur J. O'Dwyer" <ajo@nospam.andrew.cmu.edu> writes:

:Under what law would this license have its legal force?
:And this is completely unenforceable.
:Reverse engineering has long been declared legal.

That depends greatly upon jurisdiction, and is not true in general.

In Canada, if I remember correctly, reverse engineering is
explicitly legal only to the extent necessary to adapt a program to
run on a particular system.

In the USA, reverse engineering is to some extent covered by the
Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DCMA.) Under DCMA, if the program
incorporates any content protection measures what-so-ever (including
simple ones such as ROT13 or XOR'ing 8x80), then reverse engineering
it is legal only under narrow circumstances. As I recall (perhaps
incorrectly) the DCMA limits the general public to reverse engineering
just enough to adapt a program, but first you have to ask the
software authors for interfacing information and if they provide it
then you can't reverse engineer. Security researchers can reverse
engineer, but only if you are a student in a computer security program,
or are considered a professional security researcher -- and even then
you have to give -advance- notice to the company that you are going
to be analyzing the product, and you won't necessarily be able to
publish your results.

:Licenses are under copyright code, and limit
:copying not use. You cannot use copyright law to limit use just copying.
:You could try contract law, and force them to enter into an explicit
:contract but what use is an unenforceable term in a contract?

Copyright owners have the right to control the circumstances
under which copies are made of their work, and at least in Canada,
the action of bringing a computer program from hard-disk or PROM
into RAM is considered to be "copying" for the purposes of copyright
law [decided in the days when pirated BIOSes were a big problem.]
Copyright owners are entitled to write fairly complex rules about
when you are allowed to take "copies" of their works [since the law
by default says you -aren't- allowed to make -any- copies without
the permission of the owner]. They are allowed to put in a clause
saying you may not take a copy for the purpose of reverse engineering,
just as much as the yare allowed to put in a clause saying that you
may not take a copy for the purpose of running it on a second computer.
And if it just so happens that it isn't possible for you to
reverse-engineer the software without making a "copy" of it in the
process, then as far as Canadian law is concerned, tough pattoties.

US law has some narrow right-to-copy provisions that appear to me to
be self-contradictory; I do not recall the details at the moment.

On enforcement: US and Canadian law recognize "click-wrap" licenses.
US case law on shrink-wrap licenses is mixed, but the high courts trend
is to recognize shrink-wrap licenses, in roughly the framework that
once you become aware of the offensive provisions, continuing to use
the software/equipment for non-emergency work constitutes agreement
with the terms if the terms would have been enforcable if you had
explicitly signed a contract. (Ignorance is bliss, sometimes.) Some US
states specifically restrict the effects of shrink-wrap licenses; other
US states specifically say that even terms that would normally be
unenforceable in a signed contract are valid in a shrink-wrap license
[fortunately, UCITA is dying in the rest of the USA.] 

-- 
   "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damn lies, and statistics."
   -- not Twain, perhaps Disraeli, first quoted by Leonard Courtney

Relevant Pages

  • Re: software protection and licensing question
    ... In Canada, if I remember correctly, reverse engineering is ... You cannot use copyright law to limit use just copying. ... :You could try contract law, and force them to enter into an explicit ... US case law on shrink-wrap licenses is mixed, ...
    (comp.security.misc)
  • Re: Can anyone answer this one?
    ... A neo-Lockean would justify reverse engineering ironically using a ... computing law is always actionable. ... embed of data in tags or as a bitmap is regarded as a Keep Out sign. ... It has been said that women and barbed wire tamed the West. ...
    (comp.programming)
  • Re: Reverse engineering != piracy (was Re: RosAsm disassembler output vs. IDA Pro)
    ... > You're not implying that all reverse engineering is piracy, ... unlikely of crimes in modern times;)... ... Actually, just as a curiosity to mention in passing, European law ... actually permits reverse engineering of copyrighted materials in ...
    (alt.lang.asm)
  • Re: IF they cant write english dont answer
    ... > have been made in the good ole U.S.A. ... Reverse engineering is pretty easy. ... pass a law telling furriners to buy ...
    (comp.lang.cobol)
  • Re: Resources about software protection
    ... laws that prohibit copying software, or if they _do_ have such a law, ... But just to protect your intellectual property rights, ... criminals - and pay the salaries of court officials, the guards, and the ... or admit that their licenses are a crock of crap. ...
    (sci.crypt)