Re: Peter still in misery (was: Jan doesn't want Peter to know (was: Peter wants

>> 3 - Reverse engineering. Legal or not? Apparently so in some 
places. 
>> Read this months ACM Communications for an article arguing that it 
>> should be allowed.
 
> It is my understanding that reverse engineering for
> compatibility purposes is explicitly legal in many
> (perhaps all) countries of the European Union.
------------------------------------------
Article 6 of the 1991 European Communities Council Directive on the 
Legal Protection of Computer Programs.  No L 122/42 Official Journal 
of the European Communities 17.5.91

                 Article 6 - Decompilation

1. The authorization of the rightholder shall not be required where 
reproduction of the code and translation of its form within the 
meaning of Article 4 (a) and (b) are indispensable to obtain the 
information necessary to achieve the interoperability of an 
independently created computer program with other programs, provided 
that the following conditions are met:


(a) these acts are performed by the licensee or by another person 
having a right to use a copy of a program, or on their behalf by a 
person authorized to to so;

(b) the information necessary to achieve interoperability has not 
previously been readily available to the persons referred to in 
subparagraph (a); and

(c) these acts are confined to the parts of the original program 
vhich are necessary to achieve interoperability.

2. The provisions of paragraph 1 shall not permit the information 
obtained through its application:

(a) to be used for goals other than to achieve the interoperability 
of the independently created computer program;

(b) to be given to others, except when necessary for the 
interoperability of the independently created computer program; or

(c) to be used for the development, production or marketing of a 
computer program substantially similar in its expression, or for any 
other act which infringes copyright.

3. In accordance with the provisions of the Berne Convention for the 
protection of Literary and Artistic Works, the provisions of this 
Article may not be interpreted in such a way as to allow its 
application to be used in a manner which unreasonably prejudices the 
right holder's legitimate interests or conflicts with a normal 
exploitation of the computer program.

---------------------------------------------------
You'll find a non-official copy of the Directive at 
http://www.softwareindustry.org/issues/docs-htm/ec-swdir.html



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