Reverse Engineering of Software: Copyright and Interoperability
John Abbot

Summary
Computer programs are protected under copyright law in most developed countries. Software piracy, resulting from outright copying of a substantial part of software code, will generally be an infringement of copyright. More problematical and contentious issues can arise when software is copied with the intention of producing interoperable or competing products through a process of reverse engineering the original software. This can often be the only way the underlying ideas in computer programs can be revealed, particularly when the software is made available only in machine-readable object code. Issues involving reverse engineering and copyright infringement have been most developed in the United States, where a liberal approach has been taken, under the doctrine of copyright fair use. Under US law, existing software can be copied and reverse engineered to enable compatible and competing programs to be developed, provided that a competing product can be regarded as ‘transformative’. Other jurisdictions, including the EU and Australia, have introduced specific legislation to provide narrow exceptions to copyright infringement of software, through reverse engineering, but only to accommodate interoperability. In other countries, including Japan, Canada and Singapore, the legislative framework is less developed, leaving issues involving reverse engineering and copyright to be resolved under existing fair dealing laws.

A Comment on Software, Patents, Innovation and Openness
Anton Hughes

Abstract
The history of intellectual property protection in computer software reveals a unique experiment whereby all possible paradigms of protection have been tried. This article looks at whether the current trend towards unfettered patenting of software is likely to succeed where other paradigms have failed. An analysis of the rationales of the patent system and the nature of innovation in the software industry reveals that the balance has been poorly struck, with open source software projects being particularly vulnerable. Given that the problems which exist are due to the unique nature of the software industry, the author looks at ways in which industry-specific reforms can be approached.