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For example: > konkurrenzsoftware [..] untersuchen zu lassen (roughly ~ Investigate the software of the competition.) is in the article made to sound bad, do

For example: > konkurrenzsoftware [..] untersuchen zu lassen (roughly ~ Investigate the software of the competition.) is in the article made to sound bad, dodgy borderline illegal (and maybe was). But then investigating the marked and your competition is one of the most fundamental practices when it comes to competing on the marked as a large cooperation...

oytis 5y ago
Untersuchen sounds more like examining the details of how the software works (up to reverse engineering) to me, not market research.
- dathinab 5y ago
  The word "Untersuchen" doesn't contain any notation about into how much detail you go into. It can be used in pretty much any context where you "look into something" from marked research to reverse engineering. Which brings us to the point that the article is missing details relevant for doing a judgement yourself, instead it does a judgement for you and then expect you to adapt that judgement without questioning it. For example the article could have stated that the students investigated the inner workings of the competitors software, it doesn't. It just states that the uni did some research into the competitors software, without stating the depth of the research and kind of research they did into it. (E.g. they could have research usability of "xxx software solutions" across the marked (including SAP) with SAP using that to gain a upper hand (== marked research), or they could have researched how "subset of xxx software solutions" handle case Y internally (== not-just marked research).)
  - robocat 5y ago
    s/marked/market/. Just saying in case English is your Xth language, or your autocorrect has gone weird (your English is great BTW).
diarrhea 5y ago
But essentially recruiting PhD students to reverse engineer/"examine" a competitor's software is twisted.
- DaiPlusPlus 5y ago
  So long as they’re getting paid for it. What’s the moral or ethical problem? Reverse-engineering is not illegal (at least in Germany, to my knowledge).
  - tpush 5y ago
    > Reverse-engineering is not illegal (at least in Germany, to my knowledge). Up until like 2 years ago or something reverse engineering was only legal for interoperability purposes AFAIK.

oytis 5y ago

Untersuchen sounds more like examining the details of how the software works (up to reverse engineering) to me, not market research.

dathinab 5y ago
The word "Untersuchen" doesn't contain any notation about into how much detail you go into. It can be used in pretty much any context where you "look into something" from marked research to reverse engineering. Which brings us to the point that the article is missing details relevant for doing a judgement yourself, instead it does a judgement for you and then expect you to adapt that judgement without questioning it. For example the article could have stated that the students investigated the inner workings of the competitors software, it doesn't. It just states that the uni did some research into the competitors software, without stating the depth of the research and kind of research they did into it. (E.g. they could have research usability of "xxx software solutions" across the marked (including SAP) with SAP using that to gain a upper hand (== marked research), or they could have researched how "subset of xxx software solutions" handle case Y internally (== not-just marked research).)
- robocat 5y ago
  s/marked/market/. Just saying in case English is your Xth language, or your autocorrect has gone weird (your English is great BTW).

diarrhea 5y ago

But essentially recruiting PhD students to reverse engineer/"examine" a competitor's software is twisted.

DaiPlusPlus 5y ago
So long as they’re getting paid for it. What’s the moral or ethical problem? Reverse-engineering is not illegal (at least in Germany, to my knowledge).
- tpush 5y ago
  > Reverse-engineering is not illegal (at least in Germany, to my knowledge). Up until like 2 years ago or something reverse engineering was only legal for interoperability purposes AFAIK.