In English law much depends on intent : Carrying a concealed weapon down the street such as a"Stanley knife" - blade 1 inch max with intent to cause harm is against the law but carrying home from the shop a 12 inch blade hardened steel kitchen knife in original wrapping and "concealed" in the carrier bag supplied by the shop that sold it is OK, as its purpose is preparing food.
Reverse engineering software to use bespoke copyrighted bits of code in your programs for commercial advantage or simply to break copy protection to illegally distribute software is illegal. To reverse engineer to learn general principals of programming is not illegal as the intent is not illegal. --Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Wolfgang Lenerz Sent: 15 January 2006 15:50 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [ql-users] Reverse engineering On 15 Jan 2006 at 13:56, George Gwilt wrote: > > On 13 Jan 2006, at 18:06, Wolfgang Lenerz wrote: > > > > > (...) > > es assembley programming a joy to do. > >> > >> One question that I often ponder if I disassemble a program like > >> Perfection > >> then correct all the errors or program features, am I breaking a > >> software > >> licence. > > Yes. > > > > Is this true even though the altered program is merely used privately? > Yes (unless of course, the licence allows it). If you make any change to the program you're normally breaking the licence. Generally speaking, there are no "private use" provisions in any law I know of, contrary to what happens in some countries with copies of audio visual works. Even simply reverse engineering (i.e. just de-compiling) may be against the law... Wolfgang ---------------------------------------- www.scp-paulet-lenerz.com _______________________________________________ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm _______________________________________________ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
