Legalities of Reverse Engineering

[JonChappell]

I'd like to enquire about the legalities of reverse engineering Gamespy Arcade.
Gamespy has the exclusive rights to querying master servers for almost all games, which makes it difficult for someone like me who is creating a similar piece of software.
They own the master servers for these games and protect them so that only their software can query them. I believe this to be anti-competitive and would therefore like to reverse engineer the software to find out the authentication the software uses.

Reverse engineering in itself is legal under trade secret principles, so would I be allowed to include features gained from this reverse engineering process in a commercial software application?

Here is a quote from a forum post on Slashdot:

Actually, reverse engineering for the purpose of interoperability is expressly permitted by the DMCA. Under the current laws the best Yahoo! or MSN can hope to do is stay one step ahead in an IM arms race - locking out competing clients until they reverse engineer the protocol again.

Some other third party instant messaging applications have been allowed to use the Yahoo and MSN protocols via reverse engineering, but these applications are non-commercial as far as I am aware.

My application comes in two forms: unregistered version (non-expirating) and full, paid version with more features. If I include Gamespy master querying with the free unregistered version, will it still be counted as commercial, as people are not paying for that particular feature?

Thanks.

P.S. I can't tell you my state because I am in the UK, but I Gamespy is an American company who comply with US Law.

 

[HomeGuru]

I'd like to enquire about the legalities of reverse engineering Gamespy Arcade.
Gamespy has the exclusive rights to querying master servers for almost all games, which makes it difficult for someone like me who is creating a similar piece of software.
They own the master servers for these games and protect them so that only their software can query them. I believe this to be anti-competitive and would therefore like to reverse engineer the software to find out the authentication the software uses.

Reverse engineering in itself is legal under trade secret principles, so would I be allowed to include features gained from this reverse engineering process in a commercial software application?

Here is a quote from a forum post on Slashdot:


Some other third party instant messaging applications have been allowed to use the Yahoo and MSN protocols via reverse engineering, but these applications are non-commercial as far as I am aware.

My application comes in two forms: unregistered version (non-expirating) and full, paid version with more features. If I include Gamespy master querying with the free unregistered version, will it still be counted as commercial, as people are not paying for that particular feature?

Thanks.

P.S. I can't tell you my state because I am in the UK, but I Gamespy is an American company who comply with US Law.

**A: we do not respond to UK questions. Only YUK questions.

 

[sec8]

This person is an embarr"ass"ment to the U.S. and free advise.
Here is something you might find interesting http://www.copyright.gov/1201/comments/reply/020hausken.pdf

 

[JonChappell]

Thank you.

I saw the bit at the top of the page that said "US Law Only" but posted anyway because Gamespy are a US company bound by US law, and I'd probably have to travel to the US if they did sue me.

Another piece of software (Kquery, which is non-commercial freeware) has reverse engineered Gamespy, so I'm just going to play it safe at the moment and see what happens.

 

[HomeGuru]

This person is an embarr"ass"ment to the U.S. and free advise.
Here is something you might find interesting http://www.copyright.gov/1201/comments/reply/020hausken.pdf

**A: and what was the highest grade that you completed and how much do you make per month? Reason being is that you are a poor uneducated person that can not spell. You are so ignorant that you did not even bother to look at the name of the website. It is freeadvice not free advise. One gives advice not advise.

 

[JonChappell]

So?

 

[HomeGuru]

So?

**A: my point being is that sec8 is an idiot and a nuisance on this website.

 

[sec8]

HomeGuru, I have 2 degrees and what I make isn't all that important to me nor should it be to you. MY expertise is as much an english major as yours is in mannerism. But...fortunately for you this is the perfect site for you to learn about freedom of speech! You don't have to like what people say, but guess what just as much as we get to enjoy your witt as do you ours.

 

[JonChappell]

Couldn't agree more.