> It seems every few years someone does this publicly, and then either gets DMCA'd or forgotten. Luckily the guys who do this do not live or work in the USA, b

> It seems every few years someone does this publicly, and then either gets DMCA'd or forgotten. Luckily the guys who do this do not live or work in the USA, but in Austria, so Austrian and European Law applies: http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?qid=1435057541496&uri=CELEX:32009L0024 http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?qid=143505754... "(…) It has therefore to be considered that, in these limited circumstances only, performance of the acts of reproduction and translation by or on behalf of a person having a right to use a copy of the program is legitimate and compatible with fair practice and must therefore be deemed not to require the authorisation of the rightholder. An objective of this exception is to make it possible to connect all components of a computer system, including those of different manufacturers, so that they can work together. (…)" Essentially this means, that reverse engineering with the intent of creating a cleanroom implementation of a compatibility layer or independent toolchain is perfectly legal.