Timeline for What's to prevent a user from reverse engineering a GPL program?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
10 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 23, 2023 at 7:17 | comment | added | Brandin | Does the GPL allow you to reverse-engineer the code? Yes. Does the GPL allow you to use the code (no matter how you got it) in a non-GPL program? No. Well, technically you could "use" the code in non-GPL program, but you could not legally distribute the resulting program without providing the full program source code, since that's a GPL requirement. | |
| May 20, 2023 at 6:04 | comment | added | MadHatter♦ | @R..GitHubSTOPHELPINGICE with respect, the question isn't "may I reverse-engineer a GPL program", it's "if I reverse-engineer a GPL program, what conditions if any does the GPL place on me". The freedoms of free software are great, but they don't come without consequences. | |
| May 19, 2023 at 22:28 | answer | added | Kaz | timeline score: 5 | |
| May 19, 2023 at 19:54 | comment | added | R.. GitHub STOP HELPING ICE | Wow. Folks' brains are really fried by the extralegal and heinous stuff written in "EULAs" to the point of expecting it, thinking it's normal, and expecting a free software license would even want to do the same. Of course there is nothing to stop you from reverse engineering. There never is. You have the freedom to study something you lawfully possess and come to understand how it works. Anyone whose values align with free software wants you to have that freedom and wants you to know you have that freedom. They don't want to delude you into thinking you have to surrender it. | |
| May 18, 2023 at 11:43 | comment | added | apsillers♦ | I know you've already accepted the answer here, but I wanted to notify you that I've edited my answer to consider two very different meanings of "reverse engineering" with very different outcomes under copyright law. It's not clear to me which case you meant in your question, so I wanted to let know my answer is now worth a re-read. | |
| May 18, 2023 at 7:07 | history | became hot network question | |||
| May 17, 2023 at 23:59 | vote | accept | John Doe | ||
| May 17, 2023 at 23:35 | answer | added | apsillers♦ | timeline score: 33 | |
| S May 17, 2023 at 23:07 | review | First questions | |||
| May 18, 2023 at 0:03 | |||||
| S May 17, 2023 at 23:07 | history | asked | John Doe | CC BY-SA 4.0 |