Unable to buy a copy of BK [LWN.net]

Unable to buy a copy of BK

Posted Sep 26, 2004 7:09 UTC (Sun) by Ross (subscriber, #4065)
In reply to: Unable to buy a copy of BK by dvdeug
Parent article: An Interview with Tom Lord of Arch (O'ReillyNet)

On the meaning of reverse engineering, it depends on who you ask. In the
academic 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".

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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.