spectre440 said:
isnt that kinda illegal though?
Yes, it is, & "low-class" to a GOOD extent too... imo @ least. But, sometimes, there's valid reasons for it... like AntiVirus researchers, they NEED to do it sometimes, to trace a virus/malware's operations for instance.
Also - if you absolutely CANNOT find documentation for an Application Programming Interface? You sometimes are stuck doing this... if you want to get a job done & there is NO OTHER WAY!
Still, this latter point? It's still thievery, point-blank.
spectre440 said:
i mean, don't skype co. hold the rights to those protocols or something?
Well, look @ Dr. Mark Russinovich of System Internals - now, there's a "talented thief" if there ever was one... he is a pretty good master of Kernel Level Debuggers & debuggers in general & yes, he is skilled in this field in general on the software end... no questions asked.
He used to work for NuMega out of academia... & guess what one of the tools THEY build is (A debugger - in other words, a disassembly tool) & iirc, for a while for IBM as well (who are one of the few organization in the world iirc, under NDA though, that HAS the source to NT-based OS).
He & I worked for/contracted out our wares to same software vendor(s) @ one point professionally over time, & that is how I got wind of him & how he does his work.
One of my ideas was duplicated, by other coders (reverse engineering goes on EVERYWHERE, all the time, not just in computers) & Dr. Russinovich reverse engineered an idea of mine in fact, he told me so point-blank in email no less.
No big deal, my program got duplicated by others & I was made well aware that it would happen eventually anyhow... I was prepped for that eventuality in fact.
I.E.-> Anyhow - back to Dr. R: He broke the undocumented Native Windows NT-based API (beneath Win32, based largely on VMS designwork because David Cutler came from Digital (DEC))...
That is the SAME thing as stealing, imo - hacking away @ things that are not published & gaining by it, by using tools that rip apart executing code (usually from other systems linked into the system being traced & having debug symbols in place, etc.)).
Microsoft (last time I checked @ least?) owns that code, didn't publish it (or rather, all of it, the DDK covers SOME in its documentation, but not all)... did he get busted?
No - he got his company WinTernals bought out by MS in fact, & is now one of their "technical fellows" in fact... ironic, isn't it?
APK
P.S.=> He & I have had our differences over time, & he is quite knowledgeable... I won't say he isn't... but I question his ethics & methods - disassemblers are debuggers are disassemblers (point-blank)... but, still, proving an OLD ADAGE:
"Good artists copy, GREAT ARTISTS STEAL"... apk
