Re: How free is Debian
On 2019-08-08, Brad Rogers <brad@fineby.me.uk> wrote:
>
> So, when a person agrees to the terms of the EULA, they waive their
> legal right to reverse engineer. If you wish to NOT waive your rights,
> then you don't accept the EULA. Of course you then won't be able to
> install, never mind use, the software. Catch-22.
>
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sega_v._Accolade
...
Sega v. Accolade has been an influential case in matters involving reverse
engineering of software and copyright infringement, and has been cited in
numerous cases since 1993.[3]:388[10] The case has redefined how reverse
engineering with unlicensed products is seen in legal issues involving
copyright. Legally, the decision concurred that the nature of Accolade's work
in reverse engineering the Sega Genesis was to access ideas that were deemed
unprotected by copyright law, and could only be accessed by decompiling.[12] By
the verdict, the console's functional principles were established not to be
protected by copyright,[5] and that when no other means were available, reverse
engineering the copyrighted software to access information about the console's
functional principles is protected by the fair use doctrine
...
Sega v. Accolade also served to help establish that the functional principles
of computer software cannot be protected by copyright law. Rather, the only
legal protection to such principles can be through holding a patent or by trade
secret.
--
“We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.”
― Oscar Wilde, Lady Windermere's Fan
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