Comment by baranul

2 days ago

Law applies to software too. Contract law (EULA) and copyright are applicable. Many EULAs have statements on reverse engineering. Another aspect of this is unfair competition or competing directly against the product the offending software was copied from.

Violations of the EULA or copyright can result in having to fight it out in court. It's a matter of if it will be taken to court (as little guys may not have the time or lawyers) or can be that both parties have decided on some type of agreement.

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baranul

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anthk  1 day ago

Again, you are like 40 years late, or maybe 50:

- Whole Unix clones, kernel and userland

- Unix userland utility clones

- Unix compiler and linker packs. Tons of them.

- Unix UI clones 99% close to the original API

By 2000/2001 you could run most GL accelerated stuff under MESA+DRI just fine as if it were an SGI machine, even replacing propietary Motif with LessTif.

- Windows API clones, both for running and compiling software, with WineLib+WineGCC or MinGW.

- Windows clones, ReactOS from GIT can be fairly complete.

- NextStep/Cocoa clones. Currently tons of software made for OSX 10.6 (in a libre way) can be compiled with both GNUStep+Addons and with XCode.

  • baranul  8 hours ago

    It's not just about duplicating code or a public API. It's also about the look and the way things are done in a product too.

    There are trademarks and patents, in addition to copyright and contract law (any license agreements for usage of the software). Violations of any of these, can be possible reasons to be pulled into court, if that's what is decided.

    Fair use is also not a blanket shield or exemption from copyright or various licenses, but rather has specific requirements and limitations, that can be what's fought over. Among these areas that are covered are how transformative something is, to what extent its a copy, and how adversely has it affected the commercial value of the product it was copied from.

    These are all complex issues, that often lawyers and courts have to figure out. Have no idea as to what will be decided, but do think we are at the beginning and not the end, on what will be decided about using AI for the reverse engineering of commercial products and their IP.