
French Court Allows Reverse Engineering of Skype Protocol - p4bl0
http://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?depth=1&nv=1&rurl=translate.google.com&sl=auto&tl=en&u=http://www.numerama.com/magazine/27296-la-justice-francaise-blanchit-le-cassage-du-protocole-de-skype.html&usg=ALkJrhh_j0I0TnInzEe43zrZ74keHKwjnA
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steeve
A friend of mine, @ouanilo (french), actually reversed the Skype protocol:
[http://www.oklabs.net/skype-reverse-engineering-the-long-
jou...](http://www.oklabs.net/skype-reverse-engineering-the-long-journey/)

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.

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tobiasu
The court follows the EC Directive for legal protection of computer programs,
specifically Article 6. Every EU country should have laws in place that allow
for reverse engineering within certain limits.

See page 4 [PDF]: [http://eur-
lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2...](http://eur-
lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2009:111:0016:0022:EN:PDF)

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username42
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"

~~~
macmac
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.

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

~~~
shin_lao
Why is it so strange to be proud of the blessings of good fortune?

If you are born beautiful, can't you be proud of it?

If you are part of an ancient and rich civilization, can't you be proud of it?

~~~
dalore
You can respect it and count your blessings but what are you proud for if you
didn't contribute anything to it?

Now if you are part of an ancient and rich civilization and you continue to
further that civilization, that you can be proud of.

~~~
r00fus
If one does enough regression in analysis, even your contributions and works
can be traced to genes and environment you didn't exactly choose.

Why wouldn't personal beauty, health or intelligence be considered part of
that civilization - and if I procreate, I am furthering it :)

~~~
dalore
Well procreating is an achievement in itself, so it is something you can be
proud of.

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comex
I wonder what would have happened in the United States. I think the DMCA
probably couldn't be construed to apply to this, but I guess accessing Skype's
servers could be considered exceeding authorized access, similar to the 3Taps
case
([http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/207055/#axzz2i...](http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/207055/#axzz2iWzTwYAH))...

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cynwoody
Reverse engineering of protocols should be as American as the First Amendment!

~~~
ars
I'm pretty sure it's legal in the US as well. The gold method is two teams:
One reverse engineers and writes documentation, and the second team implements
based on the documentation and never sees the original.

The question is if it's legal to talk to the skype servers this way.....

~~~
slig
This is known as
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clean_room_design](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clean_room_design)

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chatman
I really hope Pidgin/Audium leverages the source code, or someone else does it
and makes a Pidgin plugin. The native Skype client on Linux crashes quite a
bit.

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Systemic33
Protocols are like languages, in the sense that they aren't the data or
protection of data, but provides a structural framework for communicating.
Languages are also in itself not information, and not secure, it's only when
you apply security that happens.

This can be compared to letting people try reverse engineer some indigenous
language in my eyes.

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Fuxy
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 :)

~~~
illumen
The EU company sold skype to an american company. Now they don't care to
protect it.

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StavrosK
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.

~~~
mtrimpe
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.

~~~
alkonaut
It will be easy for free software to offer such a solution, the problem is
that commercial software probably can't promise much about how much or how
long it will be interoperable. I'd be reluctant to pay for a commercial skype
client that can break tomorrow.

~~~
m-r-r
In the case of Skype, your right: Skype can probably change their protocols
and ruin the work of the reverse enginners. But this would have a price: Skype
users would have to install the last version of the client to be able to
communicate with their contacts. If Microsoft started to modify the Skype
protocol each week, the users would probably get tired of updating their
client weekly and they would use another software.

For others proprietary softwares, breaking the compatibility with old versions
is hardly conceivable: If Photoshop or AutoCAD where suddenly unable to use
read and write the terabytes of data created by their users, those users would
probably throw their PC through the window and never buy again a proprietary
software...

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devx
Didn't Microsoft basically reverse engineer Google's Youtube API's to make
that WP8 Youtube app? I wonder if Google will consider integrating a reverse
engineered Skype into Hangouts. Not that I'm particularly excited myself about
joining a fully spied upon chat service, but it would be an interesting move.

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alkonaut
Wasn't this the case with ICQ? That is, once the protocol was reverse
engineered, all the protocol authors had to do was change it slightly and the
3rd party implementations had to play catch up.

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meleva
Can someone explain why this is a significant decision ?

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apierre
Eet iz formidable!

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bifrost
This makes me laugh, mostly because it will alienate the French govt from the
US Govt, but also because its basically anti-IP.

~~~
Gmo
You forgot the main reason : because it goes against your preconceived ideas
about "The French".

~~~
bifrost
I'm not sure I follow, the only preconceived ideas I have about the French
relate to food and music. If the French want to tick off the USGovt, I have no
quarrel.

