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Unable to buy a copy of BKUnable to buy a copy of BKPosted Sep 26, 2004 6:09 UTC (Sun) by dvdeug (subscriber, #10998)In reply to: Unable to buy a copy of BK by lm Parent article: An Interview with Tom Lord of Arch (O'ReillyNet)
"Reverse engineering" is not poking at the software. It's disassembling the software. So, no, "you can't compete" is not a subset of "reverse engineering". In any case, "reverse engineering" is specifically permitted, irrespective of license, in many jurisdictions, and I find it very questionable ethically to tell people they can't poke around and see how something works.
Instead of just building the best mousetrap, you want to try and hide how your mousetrap works. Legal or illegal, it doesn't help get the best mousetrap on the market, and you can't really expect us to like it.
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Unable to buy a copy of BK Posted Sep 26, 2004 7:09 UTC (Sun) by Ross (subscriber, #4065) [Link] On the meaning of reverse engineering, it depends on who you ask. In theacademic and most traditional meaning of the word it means any process to turn a working product back into specifications, normally with the intention to use those to produce another product with some or all aspects of the original.
But yes, most people just use it to mean "disassemble".
Unable to buy a copy of BK Posted Sep 26, 2004 19:25 UTC (Sun) by dvdeug (subscriber, #10998) [Link] I can see that more general definition. However, "poking at" doesn't imply a process to me; keeping your eyes open during the normal course of using the program is not reverse engineering. Even playing around with a program to see how it works and how you could improve your program isn't really reverse engineering to me.
I seriously doubt that most of these people who were refused licenses were going to reverse engineer the program, instead just looking at it and possibly poking at it.
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