Hello Eric.

> I'll have to side with Bob Blick and David VanHorn on this one.  There are
> many legitimate reasons to reverse-engineer things, without stealing the code.
All depends from a human nature actually. Any action can be addressed
for right
or for wrong purpose.

> In my youth I learned a great many programming tricks by studying other
> people's code, including object code when source was not available.  But
> I have not stolen a single line of code from anyone else.
I agree with you in this at all but I apply the following: It's helpful
to read examples of code written by profy not simply peolple's code ;-)

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> However, by law I am allowed to study copyrighted works and patented devices,
> and create derivative works by making improvements or changes in order to
> better suit my needs.  By doing so, I don't gain any additional rights to the
> underlying work.  However, I am allowed (for instance) to buy a licensed
> copy, modify it, and resell it.
Eric, what the country you are living on ? I ask my question because you
tell
that you may freely modify licensed code and resell that device under
your
trade mark. BTW in the Russia (pirate country in mind of americans) this
action
are called piracy and may result to large fines or something worst ...
;-)

> The reason that I bring all this up is to point out that while code protection
> bits are obviously attractive to developers, they are actually contrary to
> the intent of intellectual property law, and to the benefits of society as a
> whole.  When a device is created containing embedded firmware that is
> code-protected, the consumer is denied the opportunity to make changes or
> improvements.  Also, while the copyright will eventually expire, the code
> will never be made available in a usable form, so for all practical intents,
> it will not actually enter the public domain.
I disagree. If consumer buy a device under special condition it will
receive
original sources too. But I see no reason to give allthing around
ability to
read my source code if I not wish to allow this. I'm not sure if you
wish to
allow allthing make money with your firmware without any compensation.


WBR Dmitry.