Re: Mail hacking?
Re: Mail hacking?
- Subject: Re: Mail hacking?
- From: Cameron Hayne <email@hidden>
- Date: Fri, 31 Oct 2003 14:53:21 -0500
On 30/10/03 9:51 PM, "Wade Tregaskis" <email@hidden>
wrote:
>
What I'm not entirely sure about is where I would stand by looking at
>
the source of a GPL'd program, effectively reverse engineering it, then
>
rewriting it entirely from scratch based only on the specification I
>
derived.
The term "reverse engineering" is usually applied to the process of figuring
out how some software works based only on its external inputs and outputs -
i.e. without looking at the source code. I think it is clear that reverse
engineering in this sense is allowed for all software (unless you have
specifically agreed not to do it in a license agreement), including software
licensed under the GPL.
If, however, you look at the source code of a program and then write your
own version, the question of whether you are making a "derived work" will
depend on how similar the source code of your program is to that of the
original.
--
Cameron Hayne (email@hidden)
Hayne of Tintagel
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