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>So you've probably just broken the law by doing so. By modifying your own device? I don't think so.

JupiterMoon 11y ago
Many countries have laws against reverse engineering programs. Whilst I think these laws are stupid I would prefer to just use the open source program than mess around with the closed source alternative.
- nitrogen 11y ago
  According to Wikipedia[0], reverse engineering is generally legal in the US: In the United States even if an artifact or process is protected by trade secrets, reverse-engineering the artifact or process is often lawful as long as it has been legitimately obtained. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reverse_engineering#United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reverse_engineering#United_Sta...
  - aw3c2 11y ago
    And that is one country out of ~200.
    - blfr 11y ago
      Yes but it has 350M people living in it, half the HN, Silicon Valley, and Moxie with his team. It's not honest to say the US is just another country among 200.
      - lostlogin 11y ago
        Ones answer to that probably depends on where they live.
      - tP5n 11y ago
        yep, in other words around 4% of the world's population live in the US and of course this pales in comparison to actually large nation states, like india or china.
      - celticninja 11y ago
        it is honest to say that, it's just that americans like to think they are special.
      - celticninja 11y ago
        it is honest to say that, it's just that americans like to think they are special.
  - JupiterMoon 11y ago
    Assuming that nothing in the thing being reverse engineered is not encrypted or protected in some fashion right?
  - JupiterMoon 11y ago
    Actually have another look at that before you break the law on this yourself. As far as I can see that article says that reverse engineering is legal in the case that: (1) the EULA doesn't mention it (I've no idea what Whatsapp EULA says - do you?). (2) it is done for the purpose of interoperability. What is being proposed by the GP is in fact not interoperability but security testing. As I said before I think that the laws on this are stupid. But why worry about this when there is a great FOSS program in the same space?

Many countries have laws against reverse engineering programs. Whilst I think these laws are stupid I would prefer to just use the open source program than mess around with the closed source alternative.

nitrogen 11y ago
According to Wikipedia[0], reverse engineering is generally legal in the US: In the United States even if an artifact or process is protected by trade secrets, reverse-engineering the artifact or process is often lawful as long as it has been legitimately obtained. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reverse_engineering#United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reverse_engineering#United_Sta...
- aw3c2 11y ago
  And that is one country out of ~200.
  - blfr 11y ago
    Yes but it has 350M people living in it, half the HN, Silicon Valley, and Moxie with his team. It's not honest to say the US is just another country among 200.
    - lostlogin 11y ago
      Ones answer to that probably depends on where they live.
    - tP5n 11y ago
      yep, in other words around 4% of the world's population live in the US and of course this pales in comparison to actually large nation states, like india or china.
    - celticninja 11y ago
      it is honest to say that, it's just that americans like to think they are special.
    - celticninja 11y ago
      it is honest to say that, it's just that americans like to think they are special.
- JupiterMoon 11y ago
  Assuming that nothing in the thing being reverse engineered is not encrypted or protected in some fashion right?
- JupiterMoon 11y ago
  Actually have another look at that before you break the law on this yourself. As far as I can see that article says that reverse engineering is legal in the case that: (1) the EULA doesn't mention it (I've no idea what Whatsapp EULA says - do you?). (2) it is done for the purpose of interoperability. What is being proposed by the GP is in fact not interoperability but security testing. As I said before I think that the laws on this are stupid. But why worry about this when there is a great FOSS program in the same space?