Research on the Reverse Engineering of Computer Software

The development of the computer software industry proposes challenges to the systems of the intellectual property laws in various countries. From the view of the legislation and judicial practice in the major developed countries, the legalization of the reverse engineering of the computer software has become a trend, and we should learn from this idea, and stipulate the reverse engineering in the legislation of protecting the computer software, in order to balance the rights of the software obligee and the corresponding limitations. The reverse engineering of the computer software is that the computer programmers find out the source code of the existing software, analyze it, and create the other software. Because the computer software has the characteristics of the high one-time cost and being duplicated, the reverse engineering has caused many problems. To understand the reverse engineering of the software, we must first make clear that the "reverse engineering" is a kind of technology that is neutral in terms of the value, and it is the knowledge with the very high technical contents. In fact, the protection of the intellectual property rights is also dependent on the reverse engineering. The results of the reverse engineering of the software which are suspected of the existence of the tort are the important and direct evidences of the judicial decisions. In this paper, the author carries out the analysis of the purpose of the reverse engineering of the computer software, the hazards of the reverse engineering of the computer software on the development market of the computer software, and the dilemma restricting the reverse engineering of the computer software.