In today's world of DMCA, Copyrights, Patents, and other legal issues developers face, the Electronic Frontier Foundation has announced it's creating a Coders' Rights Project to help protect and defend developers doing cutting edge research. Specifically in the areas of cryptography and security, developers face legal challenges due to reverse engineering, privacy, etc.
Here's a quote from the EFF press release:
QUOTE
"Coders who explore technology through innovation and research play a vital role in developing and securing the software and hardware we use everyday. Yet this important work can be stymied by bogus legal threats," said EFF Civil Liberties Director Jennifer Granick, who is heading up the project. "EFF's Coders' Rights Project will provide a front-line defense for coders facing legal challenges for legitimate research activities."
QUOTE
The Coders' Rights Project will build upon EFF's long history of work to limit the anti-circumvention provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) from reaching security and encryption researchers. EFF will also expand its involvement in matters involving the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and state computer crime laws. Additionally, EFF has created resources for programmers doing work involving reverse engineering and vulnerability reporting, available at
http://eff.org/coders.
Have you run in to legal issues with any of your development, from either side of things? What are your thoughts on users reverse engineering your code to find vulnerabilities. Is the EFF's initiative something you might take advantage of?
14 Aug, 2008 - 11:18 AM
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