What are some legal cases and ethical issues involving reverse engineering?
New court cases reveal that reverse engineering practices which are used to achieve interoperability with an independantly created computer program, are legal and ethical. In December, 2002, Lexmark filed suit against SCC, accusing it of violating copyright law as well as the DMCA. SCC reverse engineered the code contained in Lexmark printer cartidge so that it could manufacture compatible cartiges. According to Computerworld , Lexmark “alleged that SCC’s Smartek chips include Lexmark software that is protected by copyright. The software handles communication between Lexmark printers and toner cartidges; without it, refurbished toner cartidges won’t work with Lexmark’s printers.” The court ruled that “copyright law shouldn’t be used to inhibit interoperability between one vendor’s products and those of its rivals. In a ruling from the U.S. Copyright Office in October 2003, the Copyright Office said “the DMCA doesn’t block software develpers from using reverse engineering to access digi
New court cases reveal that reverse engineering practices which are used to achieve interoperability with an independantly created computer program, are legal and ethical. In December, 2002, Lexmark filed suit against SCC, accusing it of violating copyright law as well as the DMCA. SCC reverse engineered the code contained in Lexmark printer cartidge so that it could manufacture compatible cartiges. According to Computerworld , Lexmark “alleged that SCC’s Smartek chips include Lexmark software that is protected by copyright. The software handles communication between Lexmark printers and toner cartidges; without it, refurbished toner cartidges won’t work with Lexmark’s printers.” The court ruled that “copyright law shouldn’t be used to inhibit interoperability between one vendor’s products and those of its rivals. In a ruling from the U.S.
