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French Court Allows Reverse Engineering of Skype Protocol

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31–40 of 88 posts

Re: French Court Allows Reverse Engineering of Skype Protocol

#31

Sometimes, we can be proud to be french ;-) For interoperability purpose, "reverse engineering is a legal practice, and that the distribution of software using a protocol found in this way is not illegal"

I have no problems with your country. Any country that ties traffic infractions to income is fine with me. I heard most of your schooling is free to? The French have a lot we(USA) should look into.

French school isn't free, you're just basically paying it afterwards, threw many taxes including personnal income based taxes.

Re: French Court Allows Reverse Engineering of Skype Protocol

#33
post #22
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Frankly, I never understood why anyone should be proud because they happen to be of a certain nationality.

I'm proud I rolled a 6 on my dice.

But... that's one less than average! (Assuming 2d6)

Re: French Court Allows Reverse Engineering of Skype Protocol

#34
A friend of mine, @ouanilo (french), actually reversed the Skype protocol: http://www.oklabs.net/skype-reverse-engineering-the-long-jou...

Wondering why it didn't really get out there tho.

The rest of the website has more information about the journey, and an actual fake Skype client.

Re: French Court Allows Reverse Engineering of Skype Protocol

#35
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are many reasons to be proud to be French, but since the French law is just an implementation of an EU directive this is hardly one of them.

This French law existed before. The EU directive probably comes from the preexisting French law.

As far as I can tell the "French law" would be Article L122-6-1 of Code de la propriété intellectuelle which is dated 10 May 1994. The Eu Software Directive was first enacted in 1991. The text of the French law is almost verbatim the text of the directive.

Re: French Court Allows Reverse Engineering of Skype Protocol

#36
post #21
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are many reasons to be proud to be French, but since the French law is just an implementation of an EU directive this is hardly one of them.

France was a key founder of the EU.

And?

Re: French Court Allows Reverse Engineering of Skype Protocol

#37

I'm afraid that this, while a significant decision, will lot mean much in practice. Companies can play cat and mouse indefinitely, and have more resources than hobbyists, if they need their protocols to remain secret.

A French company should now be able to offer a chat messenger which is interoperable with Skype for sale, potentially giving it to keep up with the cat and mouse game.

Re: French Court Allows Reverse Engineering of Skype Protocol

#38
post #21
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are many reasons to be proud to be French, but since the French law is just an implementation of an EU directive this is hardly one of them.

France was a key founder of the EU.

It might be a good reason to be proud if you were a key founding member of the EU, but it's not nearly as impressive if it's just your favorite collective.

Re: French Court Allows Reverse Engineering of Skype Protocol

#40
post #14

Hmm... it seems European law seems to fair a lot better then American law when it comes to attempted abuse by big companies. I don't know if it's just because the judges are more sane but well done. I think I respect the french slightly more now :)

Reverse engineering is quite legal in the U.S. too.
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