From: Eckhart Köppen (eck1001_at_gmx.net)
Date: Tue Nov 04 2003 - 12:07:06 PST
On Tue, 4 Nov 2003 13:10:11 -0600, R. Dylan Stewart wrote:
> The reason it wouldn't be entirely legal to decompile the code of the Newton
> OS is that the source is still copyright Apple unless they explicitly made
> it public domain.
I think you have to split this into several separate issues and take
into account that the laws differ here from country to country. The
German implementation of the EU copyright directive (EU CD) for example
allows reverse engineering to achieve interoperability, but only if you
cannot get the necessary information in any other way (note that this
right can not be taken away via software licenses or contracts).
Also, you cannot publish the results of the reverse engineering
process, but there are many interpretations possible as to what
"results" actually are. Since the concern of the EU CD is mostly about
copyright and trade secrets, interface definitions seem to be pretty
safe (they cannot be copyrighted and also not be trade secrets).
Publishing the source code of reverse engineered code is very likely
not allowed. You are also not allowed to create a competing product
based on your knowledge gained from reverse engineering.
> It's legal to look at copyrighted stuff, but not to
> create derivitive works. You can explain what happened (for instance, a
> plot summary of a book or the specification in my reverse engineering
> example), but you can't distribute it, copy it, or base your own work on it.
The last part (basing my work on it) needs more explanation. At least
under the EU CD, you cannot use the knowlegde to create a true
derivative, but you can use it to make an independent program work with
the existing code. The notion of derivative work has been and still is
very unclear, just look at all the discussions about the GPL. But it is
safe to assume that user-level applications are not the derivative work
of an operating system. The same is true for device drivers. But I
think we might run into trouble creating something based on the
NewtonOS.
It's important to keep in mind that the EU CD is fairly new and the
implementations in the different member states might actually differ
from what I explained above. So please don't take this as legal advice.
I will however continue reverse engineering the NewtonOS to achieve
interoperability ;)
Eckhart
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