Brian Lane (nexus@ESKIMO.COM) wrote:

>   This is certainly true. There is this product that I was involved
> with (my boss designed it, I wrote some updated code for it). Another
> company copied the pcb (the layout is important to its correct
> operation, so they couldn't change it much), and our code. When we

This is not an example of reverse engineering, but outright copying,
which is illegal under copyright law. I'm not sure of the status of
PCB layouts under US law, but the ROM contents are certainly
protected by copyright law, and trivial rearrangement is not enough
to avoid a charge of copying.

"Reverse engineering" as the term is normally used, implies
re-implementation of a product, based on an examination of the internals
of the product. Of course the purpose of reverse engineering is not
always re-implementation - it may be to modify a product or to
interface to it.

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clyde@htsoft.com      | P.O. Box 103, Alderley, | Fax:   +61 7 3354 2422
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