Skype Goes After Reverse-Engineering

[dfx.]

i have no idea where it started or why -or other technicalities behind it- but the problem must be fixed ASAP

the real "fix" would be for Google to drop their incompatible modification of XMPP and to use real XMPP. but they don't seem to be too keen to do so.
so, XMPP clients are bound to implement workarounds for it.

[bridgman]

There's a difference between legality of reverse engineering for your own needs (allowed in a number of jurisdictions) and publishing the results of that reverse engineering (don't think I have seen this allowed anywhere but haven't had time to really look into it).

[AnonymousCoward]

In a networked world, my own needs require publishing of the results. So either those laws are wide enough to include that, or useless.

[LinuxID10T]

Instead of hiring lawyers and shit, skype should:

1. Let this guy continue his work
2. Use this guys work to have MORE skype clients on more platforms
3. Profit MORE

[yogi_berra]

in germany reverse engineering is legal if you want to make something compatible to a different computer system.

He didn't reverse-engineer, he decompiled and deobfuscated existing code which is just not ethical.

[PreferLinux]

He didn't reverse-engineer, he decompiled and deobfuscated existing code which is just not ethical.

So would you like to give a detailed explanation on how decompilation differs from reverse engineering? To my knowledge, they are the same thing. Or maybe decompilation is a subset of reverse engineering. As for deobfuscating, it seemed to me that he had binaries that weren't obfuscated ? not to mention that I don't see anything wrong with doing that part of it, any more that re-writing it or adding comments.

[del_diablo]

in germany reverse engineering is legal if you want to make something compatible to a different computer system.
you also can crack windows software to make it compatible to linux in germany.

in my point if view its only against the law in the "USA"

If I know my lawbooks correctly: Its also completely legal in USA.
The problem is that the court system is not setup to follow the countries laws, combined with a obligatory too high lawyer fee for a non-case.
If you have paid for a lawyer, or have a insurance that gives you a free lawyer, then its just to go to court and win. If not, then getting a lawyer will apparently be too expensive.

And last and not least: Sending DCMA takedown notices for a non-DMCA issue is a crime. It is usually never brought to court, but it should be.
Nevermind courts: One should be allowed to directly report it to a police organisation, because a crime is a crime.

[RealNC]

He didn't reverse-engineer, he decompiled and deobfuscated existing code which is just not ethical.

Decompiling *is* reverse-engineering.

[mcirsta]

The man's actually from Russia, I think that pretty much gives him the right to do whatever he wants. All Skype can do is block his posts on Google or other US/EU sites but other than that.

If Skype actually had a case I'm sure they would have blocked his Google blog anyway so they probably don't.

Good thing he's not from the US though , they would have unleashed the lawyers and him until he gave up As it happend to Geohot and the PS3 who was put in the his place. Last I know he was even a corporate empolyer so all praise the US and the corporations.

[XorEaxEax]

He didn't reverse-engineer, he decompiled and deobfuscated existing code which is just not ethical.

I don't know how 'ethical' enters the picture here as it is a legal matter. I'm not sure what the laws concerning reverse-engineering are in the states, but I did work on reverse-engineering the functionality of a black box gps system a bunch of years ago. This was done using clean-room reverse-engineering (which is legal here in Sweden atleast) where one person examined code/functionality and documented it and another used that documentation to develop code to interface with that box. I recall there were some legal documents to sign which made us liable should we not perform this in a 'clean-room' manner.

As for decompilation, it's arguably a step-up from examining the actual machine code but some people seem to think it results in nice looking source code which is far from the truth.