Full Disclosure mailing list archives
Re: Publishing exploit code ruled illegal in France?
From: Vincent Archer <var () deny-all com>
Date: Fri, 11 Mar 2005 09:32:58 +0100
On Thu, Mar 10, 2005 at 09:59:35AM -0700, Burnes, James wrote:
So, in France, which of the following statements are true? 1. You must literally own the software in question before reverse engineering it? A normal user license is not good enough. In other words, only Microsoft may reverse engineer its own software. Pointless, but whatever... 2. You may reverse engineer a copy that you have licensed. 3. You may reverse engineer a copy that a license owner has given you permission to examine. 4. You must have formal permission of a license owner in hand and notarized before you may examine such a piece of software.
That would be statement 2. 3 is probably also arguable in court, if the license owner has formally contracted you (or is just your employer) to do the reverse engineering on his behalf. The reverse engineering is allowable thru exeptions to the general rules protecting IP and trade secrets. The main one is that you're allowed to reverse engineer software for interoperability purposes (i.e., you're allowed to dissect Windows to find out the undocumented APIs that you could use in your programs. Or to find out how the firewall work, so you can control it or supplement it). Reverse engineering and publishing your findings is not automatic. That's where consumer protection laws start to interfere with IP, and that's where lawyers start earning their fees. At least, it's not DMCA. -- Vincent ARCHER varcher () denyall com Tel : +33 (0)1 40 07 47 14 Fax : +33 (0)1 40 07 47 27 Deny All - 5, rue Scribe - 75009 Paris - France www.denyall.com _______________________________________________ Full-Disclosure - We believe in it. Charter: http://lists.grok.org.uk/full-disclosure-charter.html Hosted and sponsored by Secunia - http://www.secunia.com/
Current thread:
- Publishing exploit code ruled illegal in France? sec-list (Mar 09)
- Re: Publishing exploit code ruled illegal in France? Gregh (Mar 09)
- Re: Publishing exploit code ruled illegal in France? Vincent Archer (Mar 10)
- Re: Publishing exploit code ruled illegal in France? jean-philippe Gaulier (Mar 10)
- Re: Publishing exploit code ruled illegal in France? Liu Die Yu (Mar 11)
- Re: Publishing exploit code ruled illegal in France? class 101 (Mar 11)
- Re: Publishing exploit code ruled illegal in France? Liu Die Yu (Mar 11)
- Re: Publishing exploit code ruled illegal in France? Georgi Guninski (Mar 10)
- <Possible follow-ups>
- RE: Publishing exploit code ruled illegal in France? Burnes, James (Mar 10)
- Re: Publishing exploit code ruled illegal in France? Vincent Archer (Mar 11)
- Re: Publishing exploit code ruled illegal in France? securitynews (Mar 11)
- RE: Publishing exploit code ruled illegal in France? class 101 (Mar 11)
- Re: Publishing exploit code ruled illegal in France? Gregh (Mar 09)