https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clean-room_design https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clean-room_design TLDR: legal: decomp -> write spec -> get it signed off -> pass

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clean-room_design https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clean-room_design TLDR: legal: decomp -> write spec -> get it signed off -> pass it to someone else for implementation -> distribute illegal: decomp -> clean up -> distribute Immediately once they pulled the binary up in their decompiler of choice they were legally tainted and could no longer legally publish any related source code. This is of course then debated, like everything. So all of this is to the extent I'm familiar with the topic.