How Could The Electronic Communications Privacy Act Regulate Reverse Engineering?
The ECPA, sections 18 U.S.C. 2510 and following, prohibit interception of electronic communications flowing over a network. Because packets are communications, network packet inspection may violate ECPA. There are many exceptions to this general prohibition. For example, the service provider may intercept and use communications as part of “any activity which is a necessary incident to the rendition of his service or to the protection of the rights or property of the provider of that service, except that a provider of wire communication service to the public shall not utilize service observing or random monitoring except for mechanical or service quality control checks.” In addition, if the parties to the communication consent, then there is also no legal problem. The ECPA is a complicated statute, so if your research involves inspecting network packets — even you’re only interested in addressing information, such as source and destination addresses — you should talk to a lawyer first
