Board index » delphi » Re: Managing competitor file format

2007-11-07 09:31:00 PM
delphi149
John writes:
engineering, and there are certainly license clauses that address that
issue, but I have no idea whether there is any case law on the subject.
--
Bill
 

Hi John:
At the end of the day, the information belongs to the final user, so he/she
will be able to use
as they want and with the tools their want.
Saludos
Sebas
"John" <XXXX@XXXXX.COM>escribi?en el mensaje

"John" <XXXX@XXXXX.COM>writes
legally public, then by definition, employing it to get at information that
is also legally authorized (your own or your customer's) should also be
fine. If the format was obtained by reverse-engineering or any other means
not sanctioned by the proprietary company, then using it would also not
likely be legal.
If the data involved is being "held for ransom" by said company, there is
good argument that the *data* is the legal property of that customer, not
the vendor, and so you can *probably* get away with extracting (rescuing)
the customer's data via any means you can. BUT that is a legal minefield and
in situations like this you *really* need to consult a lawyer (as you should
in any case if there is any doubt at all).
--
Wayne Niddery - Winwright, Inc. (www.winwright.ca)
 

That's a good question, how does this work for Open Office or iWork to be
able to read/write MS Office files? There's countless instances of competing
products having support for other file formats so I am guessing all the legal
work got sorted out in the 80s. The real kicker is how this could apply with
the DMCA. I should be able to reverse engineer the format for compatibility
but if its encrypted do the rules change as I could now be breaking
copywrite on the file format itself?
DD
 

Hello,
afaik in the EU there is some law which allows reverse engineering if
the original producer doesn't give you the information needed to make
your product compatible with his. But: ask a lawyer first, I can't
guarantee this statement of mine.
Greetings
Markus
 

If the format was obtained by reverse-engineering or any
by one of the customer of this company that wanted our software to be
able to import all of his job done in the past...
 

Eug. C. writes:
--
Bill
 

Extracting data out of a file does not mean "reverse engineer".
We do extract data and import in our application from various file formats.
Go for it