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Closed Source Reverse Engineering

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beltorak0:
from void main:
 
quote:Reverse engineering is allowed to an extent. I would have to do some research so don't take what I say as fact but I believe it to be so. I believe that you are allowed to reverse engineer closed source software that do not document their protocols and interfaces so as to make your software work/communicate with said closed source software.  
--- End quote ---


You are right as far as I know -- i don't have the time to look it up right now, but I believe the act was passed right along with the "fair use" stuff.  Basically, lazygamer, all you do is plug things into {software}'s input ans see what comes out as output. The same process allowes OO.org and Abiword read M$ Word Docs -- although not perfectly.  I can never get any embedded images to show.  It is also what alows read support for NTFS under linux -- again not perfectly, especially write support.

Just wait until Longhorn and the new Database File System comes out.  I was wondering how M$ was going to bundle thier half-ass SQL server into the OS; now I know.  How bloated will that make the kernel?  Not to mention the damage caused by bugs.  Since the whole point of a database information setup is to eliminate redundancy, much of the information stored on the disk will be nothing more than "links" to other parts of information.  That creates a worse single-point of failure than the registry does.  At least you can back up the registry.  Now eveytime you download your email you will have to "ghost" the harddrive just to be sure.

whatever.

-t.

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