Is the making of an intermediate copy in the reverse engineering process copyright infringement?
There have been many attempts by companies over the past two decades to bring claims against software developers for their reverse engineering efforts. Since reverse engineers must make intermediate copies of the original work through the disassembly or decompilation process, the copyright owners of the initial software program have claimed that such a procedure is not covered by Section 117. They have argued that reverse engineering should be considered copyright infringement since some of the retrieved technical data used in the development process includes copyrightable expression. In Sega v. Accolade, the case most often referred to discussing reverse engineering of computer software, the appellate court determined that reverse engineering is a fair use when “no alternative means of gaining an understanding of those ideas and functional concepts exists.” The court considered Accolade’s intermediate copying of parts of Sega’s video game console during the reverse engineering process
There have been many attempts by companies over the past two decades to bring claims against software developers for their reverse engineering efforts. Since reverse engineers must make intermediate copies of the original work through the disassembly or decompilation process, the copyright owners of the initial software program have claimed that such a procedure is not covered by Section 117. They have argued that reverse engineering should be considered copyright infringement since some of the retrieved technical data used in the development process includes copyrightable expression. In Sega v. Accolade, the case most often referred to discussing reverse engineering of computer software, the appellate court determined that reverse engineering is a fair use when “no alternative means of gaining an understanding of those ideas and functional concepts exists.” The court considered Accolade’s intermediate copying of parts of Sega’s video game console during the reverse engineering process
