From:	Erik Max Francis <max AT alcyone DOT com>
Newsgroups:	comp.os.msdos.djgpp
Subject:	Re: Okay, I have to ask this
Date:	Fri, 31 Jul 1998 22:33:17 -0700
Organization:	Alcyone Systems
Lines:	19
Message-ID:	<35C2A89D.4826E9F0@alcyone.com>
References:	<3 DOT 0 DOT 5 DOT 32 DOT 19980729133233 DOT 007d0800 AT mail DOT geocities DOT com>
NNTP-Posting-Host:	kamali.alcyone.com
Mime-Version:	1.0
To:	djgpp AT delorie DOT com
DJ-Gateway:	from newsgroup comp.os.msdos.djgpp

John Meyer wrote:

> What is "reverse engineering"?  And why is it illegal?

Reverse engineering is taking the machine code of a program and working
backward to see what kind of source (in whatever language) would give
you that code.

It's illegal (depends on the circumstances; certainly it's actionable)
in that it's copyright infringement.

-- 
Erik Max Francis / email max AT alcyone DOT com / whois mf303 / icq 16063900 
Alcyone Systems / irc maxxon (efnet) / finger max AT sade DOT alcyone DOT com
  San Jose, CA / languages En, Eo / web http://www.alcyone.com/max/
          USA / icbm 37 20 07 N 121 53 38 W
             \
            / I've got the fever for the flavor of a cracker
           / Ice Cube

- Raw text -