Re: Skype reportedly reverse-engineered

[Jeffrey Walton <noloader () gmail com>]

On Tue, Jun 7, 2011 at 4:10 PM, Rob, grandpa of Ryan, Trevor, Devon &
Hannah <rMslade () shaw ca> wrote:
> http://j.mp/kt72Ke+
>
> > "Yesterday we reported on a freelance researcher reverse-engineering the
> > Skype protocol and beginning to write open-source code that would work with
> > this popular VoIP network. A representative of Skype has now contacted
> > Phoronix to inform us they will be taking "all necessary steps" to stop this
> > effort."
"...the courts are willing to allow a limited amount of reverse
engineering of copyrighted materials for the purpose of achieving
interoperability between computer products as long as the final
product does not contain any infringing code. When it does contain
such code, it may at times also be excused under the doctrines of
merger and scenes a faire if it is necessary to achieve
interoperability or functions as a lockout code."
- Jason Schultz, Senior Staff Attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation

Hopefully the EFF will take up the cause on Skypes judicial bullying
(am I reading too much into "all necessary steps"?).

> [SNIP]

> This new wrinkle in the situation reminds me of the battle royal, many years ago,
> between Microsoft and AOL over instant messaging functions.  (Little good can
> come out of the fight, I suspect, other than the high probability that someone will
> come up with some form of realistic alternative to Skype.)  In the instant
> messaging scrap, both sides worked furiously on developing new versions of their
> client software that would be incompatible with the other.  This activity
> culminated in one vendor creating one with a buffer overflow situation.  Not by
> accident: this was done deliberately so that some instant messaging functions could
> *only* be accessed by a buffer overflow, thus reducing the (comparative)
> functionality of the other client.
Ooh! More AARD code!
(http://www.theregister.co.uk/1999/11/05/how_ms_played_the_incompatibility/).
Funny how it morphs and then spotted in the wild - a lot like a
virus....

Jeff

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