At 11:21 27.5.1998 -0400, you wrote:
>Hey Paul or Starfire:
>
>If I write a book, and you copy every word and print a thousand copies, you
>are a thief.
>But you probably are well aware that you are a criminal, and just don't
>care.
>You can kiss my shiny ass!
>
>PS, if you simply hand the gun to the bank robber, you are an acomplace.
>

Hello Chris,

just a few words. I hope that I will not start the flame war, but I can't
fully agree with you.
Of course, you are right that if somebody will copy your program from
microcontroller, he is a thief. But in the ad was nothing about copying.
They are just offering the decoding service. It is up to customer what he
will do with the decoded program. If I would like to copy and sell
someone's hardware/software, it is probably cheaper to develop a new
version than pay for decoding service.

On the other side, I can see several situations where the decoding service
can be quite usefull. For example, when the former programmer quits the
company and destroyed program sources.
Or there is another case (more questionable). The world is full of
"proprietary" protocols, stupid encryptions etc. Satellite encryption
cards, game consoles, car computers etc. in these cases, the decoding
service is the only possibility. It is not a question of copying the work
of someone, it is a question how to get the some "secret" algorithm.

I also used the method of reverse-engineering at least once. I had several
audio/video components in my home. Equipment was from SONY, KENWOOD,
PANASONIC, JVC and PHILIPS. When I tried to build the central remote
control for the whole set of equipment (everything controlled by wire from
PC with serial port), I wrote to all of these companies. I got only two
answers. The first one was from JVC (letter about "secret, proprietary
protocol") and the second one was from Panasonic. From Panasonic, I got the
fat big envelope with the complete description of their controll protocols,
including the 5-wire editing protocol for VCRs. Everything was in it:
timing, pin descriptions, signal levels etc.
So, it was necessary to reverse-engineer the rest of equipment. I was
succesfull, but when I will buy some new equipment, I will choose
Panasonic...
In my opinion, the manufacturers are in most cases responsible for the
situation when peoples are reverse-engineering their products.

Maybe I am a bit biased because I hate the world full of "secret" and
"proprietary" protocols, NDA agreements etc.

Best regards

PavelK

**************************************************************************
* Pavel Korensky                                                         *
* DATOR3 LAN Services spol. s r.o.                                       *
* Modranska 1895/17, 143 00, Prague 4, Czech Republic                    *
*                                                                        *
* PGP Key fingerprint:  F3 E1 AE BC 34 18 CB A6  CC D0 DA 9E 79 03 41 D4 *
*                                                                        *
* SUMMA SCIENTIA - NIHIL SCIRE                                           *
**************************************************************************