Legality of reverse engineering.

I am sure it has been asked before about if reverse engineering is legal or illegal, or if you only do it for personal use and not distribute information/source/binaries. So that is not what I am asking.

I am curious, inside the case of a game usually in the manual, you have information saying that you cannot attempt to reverse engineer the product at all, doing so is illegal etc. But this is usually in the game case, not on the case itself, and the cases are usually sealed. How are you supposed to know this information before you buy the game? Are you supposed to ask somebody in the shop? Should you contact the game company?

Because what they are saying is "By buying this game you are agreeing to...", which to me sounds like a contract stating that if you buy the game you will not reverse engineer it. But in order to see that contract you have to open the game and read the manual, yet by that time you have already bought the game. And if you decide you do not want to agree to the contract where do you stand as a customer? Can you ask for your money back because you do not agree to the terms and conditions? Or what if you ask for your money back and the refuse, does this give you the right to reverse engineer it?

If you were able to get a refund, who would you get it from the game company or the shop where you bought it? Would this come down to the laws of the country where the game is purchased?

Thanks for the information guys.

[nikola]

Well that could sound logical, but we all know that you are not allowed to do anything that will get you free something
Kidding. Well, partly that's true. Even if the contract was clearly noted on the case what you can and cannot do with it, you could argue if the contract is obligatory if you didnt sign it. This could go on and on. So, if you dont want to make contracts, and hire lawyers for buying a cd, better just accept that you will have to presume that modifying it is forbidden.

So you could say that in general it is considered illegal to reverse engineer a product that you buy?

Just like for example, when you buy a movie it is not that you are agreeing not to copy it, it is that it is the law says you cannot copy it for example.

[nikola]

Well technicly, I think you're not buying a product, but license to use it.
About copying movies, that depends on the law in your country. Any warnings or notices on DVD dont have to be valid in your country. Similar for software...

[gabri3l]

I am curious, inside the case of a game usually in the manual, you have information saying that you cannot attempt to reverse engineer the product at all, doing so is illegal etc. But this is usually in the game case, not on the case itself, and the cases are usually sealed. How are you supposed to know this information before you buy the game? Are you supposed to ask somebody in the shop? Should you contact the game company?

a good question, someone decided to go to court over this type of issue
hxxp://news.com.com/2100-1001-983988.html

Thanks for the news article. It was interesting to see that somebody filed a lawsuit against the companies for there licensing agreements. Though I wonder what other way of doing things for the companies would be.

Would be great if you could just say i dont agree the contract and give the game/app back, but they know that everyone would burn it and give it back. I know that you can in my country give back cds which are protected and you can just say they donno work with my cd player (which is sometimes true).