European DMCA

Ruben Leote Mendes ruben at nocturno.org
Mon Jul 30 20:59:02 UTC 2001


On Mon, Jul 30, 2001 at 07:53:28PM +0100, João Miguel Neves wrote:
> On 30 Jul 2001 20:14:31 +0200, Simo Sorce wrote:
> > > The problem is that, in practive it makes reverse engineering a crime.
> > 
> > Will this imply that decoding protocols that flows over a network will be
> > also a crime?
> 
> First, the standard disclaimer, IANAL.
> For SMB, as is, I think there's no problem. Now if MS extends the
> authentication protocol to make sure you're connecting from workstation
> with a valid license, reverse engineering that might put you in jail,
> because your work could be considered as "facilitating ... an
> infringement of any copyright".

In your example the copyright infringement would be the unlawful use of 
a computer program. Article 1 of this directive explicitly excludes computer
programs, so you can reverse engineer SMB without fear of violating this law.
The directive is intended to protect audio, visual and audio-visual material.

Note: IANAL also.

-- 
Rúben Leote Mendes - ruben at nocturno.org
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