> Date: Mon, 3 Jan 2000 18:43:52 -0800 (PST)
> From: bram <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> I'm a little confused. Are you saying that as of October it will be legal
> to do any amount of reverse-engineering, publishing, and writing to APIs
> you want without violating the original author's copyright? Does that mean
> that, say, Bsafe will have the rug yanked out from under it by allowing
> alternate non-infringing implementations?
No, October 28, 2000 is when the act of circumventing an effective
technological measure becomes a violation (with exceptions for fair
use, crypto research, reverse engineering, law enforcement, etc.).
Until then it is legal under the new copyright law.
Circumvention for interoperability purposes is already permitted, but
not as broadly as you state. Trafficking in technology (including
software), the primary purpose of which is to circumvent effective
technological measures, is already prohibited. I recommend that you
read Section 1201 of Title 17 for details, which is available online
at http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/unframed/17/1201.html. I've
excerpted the subsection about reverse engineering below (paragraph 3
is the one I mentioned in my previous message).
Ray
(f) Reverse Engineering. - (1) Notwithstanding the provisions of
subsection (a)(1)(A), a person who has lawfully obtained the right to
use a copy of a computer program may circumvent a technological
measure that effectively controls access to a particular portion of
that program for the sole purpose of identifying and analyzing those
elements of the program that are necessary to achieve interoperability
of an independently created computer program with other programs, and
that have not previously been readily available to the person engaging
in the circumvention, to the extent any such acts of identification
and analysis do not constitute infringement under this title.
(2) Notwithstanding the provisions of subsections (a)(2)
and (b), a person may develop and employ technological means to
circumvent a technological measure, or to circumvent protection
afforded by a technological measure, in order to enable the
identification and analysis under paragraph (1), or for the purpose of
enabling interoperability of an independently created computer program
with other programs, if such means are necessary to achieve such
interoperability, to the extent that doing so does not constitute
infringement under this title.
(3) The information acquired through the acts permitted
under paragraph (1), and the means permitted under paragraph (2), may
be made available to others if the person referred to in paragraph (1)
or (2), as the case may be, provides such information or means solely
for the purpose of enabling interoperability of an independently
created computer program with other programs, and to the extent that
doing so does not constitute infringement under this title or violate
applicable law other than this section.
(4) For purposes of this subsection, the term
''interoperability'' means the ability of computer programs to
exchange information, and of such programs mutually to use the
information which has been exchanged.
