3 ms·

And suddenly it became legal to decompile code to find exploits. Awesome!

by chris_wot 5y ago

brezelgoring 5y ago
Nothing stopped you from doing it before, only difference is, now you can do it openly. Hopefully for good purposes.
- chris_wot 5y ago
  Indeed, I quite agree.
cute_boi 5y ago
why is this a bad thing? If someone company like google/microsoft ships backdoors due to government then decompiling and finding bugs will help humanity right?
- chris_wot 5y ago
  I didn't say it was. I am genuinely happy that it is now legal.
adrian_b 5y ago
Do you really believe that anyone who has the intention to find exploits cares about whether decompilation is legal or not?
- chris_wot 5y ago
  No, not really. I like that it is legal to do so now.
crest 5y ago
</sarcasm> ?
- chris_wot 5y ago
  No, I was actually happy about this.
orra 5y ago
Reverse engineering for interoperability has been legal in the EU since at least the 1991 Software Directive. Yes, there's a requirement for interoperability, but "interoperability" is construed broadly. Interoperability in law relates to "interfaces", including APIs, and compatible file formats. Conceivably the term could also be used to describe an antivirus program which protects the program in question. That's good this is allowed. Besides, bad faith actors will reverse engineer for malicious purposes, regardless of the law.
maxpro 5y ago
As this would stop someone writing exploits from decompiling
dahart 5y ago
It did not become legal to decompile code to find exploits. This EU ruling affirms the legality only in the EU to decompile code only for the purpose of fixing bugs.
TeMPOraL 5y ago
One man's exploit is another man's accessibility feature. Exploits by themselves aren't good or bad - their use for malicious purposes is. See also: adversarial interoperability.
- chris_wot 5y ago
  Indeed, we are not disagreeing. I'm very happy that it is now legal. That's what I wrote, I think people have read into my comment that I'm being sarcastic, where I'm not.
_kbh_ 5y ago
this has always been legal in a lot of countries.

And suddenly it became legal to decompile code to find exploits. Awesome!

brezelgoring 5y ago

Nothing stopped you from doing it before, only difference is, now you can do it openly. Hopefully for good purposes.

chris_wot 5y ago
Indeed, I quite agree.

cute_boi 5y ago

why is this a bad thing? If someone company like google/microsoft ships backdoors due to government then decompiling and finding bugs will help humanity right?

chris_wot 5y ago
I didn't say it was. I am genuinely happy that it is now legal.

adrian_b 5y ago

Do you really believe that anyone who has the intention to find exploits cares about whether decompilation is legal or not?

chris_wot 5y ago
No, not really. I like that it is legal to do so now.

crest 5y ago

</sarcasm> ?

chris_wot 5y ago
No, I was actually happy about this.

orra 5y ago

Reverse engineering for interoperability has been legal in the EU since at least the 1991 Software Directive. Yes, there's a requirement for interoperability, but "interoperability" is construed broadly. Interoperability in law relates to "interfaces", including APIs, and compatible file formats. Conceivably the term could also be used to describe an antivirus program which protects the program in question. That's good this is allowed. Besides, bad faith actors will reverse engineer for malicious purposes, regardless of the law.

maxpro 5y ago

As this would stop someone writing exploits from decompiling

dahart 5y ago

It did not become legal to decompile code to find exploits. This EU ruling affirms the legality only in the EU to decompile code only for the purpose of fixing bugs.

TeMPOraL 5y ago

One man's exploit is another man's accessibility feature. Exploits by themselves aren't good or bad - their use for malicious purposes is. See also: adversarial interoperability.

chris_wot 5y ago
Indeed, we are not disagreeing. I'm very happy that it is now legal. That's what I wrote, I think people have read into my comment that I'm being sarcastic, where I'm not.

_kbh_ 5y ago

this has always been legal in a lot of countries.