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Ask HN: Take down my reverse-engineered Snapchat lib because they asked?

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Ask HN: Take down my reverse-engineered Snapchat lib because they asked?

#1

Post by tlack »

A few months ago, I spent a couple days reverse engineering the Snapchat protocol and wrote a quick and dirty library to use it in your own PHP apps:

https://github.com/tlack/snaphax

Today Snapchat has written me requesting that I take it offline:

    Hi Thomas,
    I'm writing to ask that you remove Snaphax from github
    and no longer publish or distribute it. Snapchat does
    not permit third party software to access our API and
    we consider Snaphax to be an unlawful circumvention 
    device under 17 U.S.C. § 1201(a)(1).

    Please confirm that it has been removed by end of day
    Monday, July 22nd.

    Thank you,

    Micah Schaffer
    Snapchat, Inc.
I haven't had much time to really finish Snaphax (and I doubt I ever will) but I strongly support the idea that third party software should be able to interact with the services I use every day.

I am under the impression that reverse engineering is still protected under fair use doctrines. Is this the case? How should I respond, if at all?

Re: Ask HN: Take down my reverse-engineered Snapchat lib because they asked?

#3

Post by ada1981 »

It looks like the law is written to prevent people from writing code to decrypt or descrambler signals (like cable TV or payperview). But I'm not a lawyer. Is there a place someone could post the code anonymously? My guess is this is a threat which wouldn't hold up / but they also have cash and lawyers, which is most of the legal game anyway. Good luck.

Re: Ask HN: Take down my reverse-engineered Snapchat lib because they asked?

#7

Post by simias »

untog wrote: post #5

Ignore 99% of the responses in this thread, particularly any that say "I think...", "It seems fair...", and so on. You're in a legal situation here, if you are worried, contact a lawyer.

I think he's asking for moral, not legal advice.

Re: Ask HN: Take down my reverse-engineered Snapchat lib because they asked?

#8

Post by late2part »

A lot of times when you use a product, you're required to agree to an EULA wherein you promise/commit to not reverse engineer a product or its protocols. If you did use snapchat as a registered user, this issue could affect you negatively.

Another alternative is to mail them back and ask them for clarification. Why do they consider it an infringement?

The law clearly states the following:

  (2) No person shall manufacture, import, offer to the public, provide, or otherwise traffic in any technology, product, service, device, component, or part thereof, that—
  (A) is primarily designed or produced for the purpose of circumventing a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under this title;
  (B) has only limited commercially significant purpose or use other than to circumvent a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under this title; or
  (C) is marketed by that person or another acting in concert with that person with that person’s knowledge for use in circumventing a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under this title.
The way I interpret this is that if one is overcoming some encryption or authentication scheme, it may be disallowed under the law. If one is simply observing a protocol online, then one may be doing something bad as this says.

Re: Ask HN: Take down my reverse-engineered Snapchat lib because they asked?

#9

Post by jwcrux »

Like many others have said, it would be best to consult an attorney if you're concerned.

However, while you may not be able to distribute software which uses the API, I think many people would enjoy/benefit from a post describing how you reversed it and what steps you took to create the library.

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