Don''t some of the seran-wrap(sp?) licenses on some software products include sections on agreeing not to reverse engineer the product. (among other things)

I could be making this up... maybe I''ll start reading those things.

- Jason

Yeah, 99% of software says not to disassemble, reverse engineer, or modify the program in any way.

[edited by - smiley4 on December 18, 2002 4:32:24 PM]

Yeah, but if you leave no evidence... you could reverse engineer anything and just create a collage of different game engines and pass it off as one big game engine that pushes the envelope -- so long as the code isn''t exactly the same and everyone believes that you did it yourself. (With the help of a team that can vouch for you.)

(I don''t really know anything, but...)

A key issue here is that you (usually) don''t own software you buy or download like you own your car. Instead you own the right to use it under whatever license is attached to it. Many EULAs says that you are not allowed to RE the software, although I doubt that they can legally forbid you doing that.

I think the reverse engineering part of it all is pretty irrelevant, as it falls back on copyright and patent violation. In this case probably the latter, and then it really doesn''t matter if you REd it, as you could as well got the info from public documents.

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