[Celinux-dev] Reverse Engineering and the new CELF Wiki

[Bill Traynor]

On 10/31/06, Tim Bird <tim.bird at am.sony.com> wrote:
> Bill Traynor wrote:
> > Reverse Engineering example:
> >
> > http://elinux.org/wiki/PixterMultimedia
> >
> > Would that content be pulled from the new wiki?
>
> No.  This all looks like OK information to me.
>
> I thought you'd have something more difficult. :-)

The reason I'm asking (if it wasn't obvious from my example) is to
encourage the merging of the new wiki with eLinux.org.

>
> Areas which really tick off companies are things like
> mod chips for game consoles to allow playing
> unlicensed content.  While this might be the specific
> intent of the pages you linked to, none of the technical
> information I saw there is directly about breaking
> DRM.  Saying what chips are used, what certain pins do,
> and what protocols are used, all sound OK to me.
>
> > Isn't the reverse
> > engineering of such a device kind a grey area according to US law?
>
> It depends.  The biggest problem area is DRM, where US law
> has specific provisions about reverse engineering with the
> intent to eliminate protective measures covering copyrighted work.
> Reverse engineering with the intent to put (or replace) Linux
> on a device would not be a violation of the DMCA, unless
> Linux were then used to access the originally copyrighted work.
> It would be extremely poor DRM design if replacing the kernel
> on a device allowed you access to otherwise protected content.
>
>  -- Tim
>
> =============================
> Tim Bird
> Architecture Group Chair, CE Linux Forum
> Senior Staff Engineer, Sony Electronics
> =============================
>