Back to the Basics The Ethical Aspect of Reverse Engineering

What Is Reverse Engineering?

“The process of analyzing a system's code, documentation, and behavior to identify its current components and their dependencies to extract and create system abstractions and design information. The subject system is not altered; however, additional knowledge about the system is produced.” –Software Technology Review, 2/26/00

Why Reverse Engineering? Produce compatible product Produce competing product Academic use Hacking/cracking

Why Reverse Engineering? Specifically: Discern specifications Ensure compatibility Understand program operation Understand solutions to programming problems Understand concepts

What’s Wrong With Reverse Engineering? Copyright violation Temporary copies of code in RAM Copying portions of code (BIOS, ROMs) Copying “non-literal” elements (look and feel) Both literal and non-literal parts of software protected by law

What’s Wrong With Reverse Engineering? Patent infringement Intermediate copies may violate patents Hacking/cracking Exploit security holes Disable copy-protection Modification and redistribution of copyrighted material

Ethical Considerations Consider purpose of reverse engineering Fair use vs. Unethical/criminal use Healthy competition vs. Monopoly

US Law Digital Millennium Copyright Act Circumventing anti-piracy controls is illegal Hardware and software for unauthorized duplication is illegal Cracking is legal for assessing product security and compatibility Cracking is legal for academic use

Specific Cases AOL vs. Microsoft: the instant messenger wars Microsoft reverse-engineered AOL Instant Messenger to provide compatibility AOL repeatedly changed protocols In similar incident, AOL reportedly asked Prodigy to license IM protocol Did either company act ethically?

Specific Cases Sony vs. Connectix Playstation emulator for Macintosh Sony claimed copyright infringement, damage to Playstation name Initial injunction against Connectix recently overturned Is Connectix capitalizing on Playstation name?

The “Newspaper Test” Texas Instruments’ solution: the Ethics Quick Test Is the action legal? Does it comply with our values? If you do it, will you feel bad? How will it look in the newspaper? 2/27/00

TI’s stance “Reverse engineering is a very common, accepted, and expected practice in our business world today. When we put a product on the market, we assume that it will be reverse engineered by competitors and others. Once it is on the market, there are few secrets left…perhaps some in our manufacturing process. That is one reason we so vigorously defend infringements on our patents. But this philosophy allows reverse engineering to pass the last three quick tests” 2/27/00

Summary Reverse engineering can be used for ethical and non-ethical purposes Use newspaper test to evaluate Laws protect against improper use