Abstract

Copyright law aims at promoting the social public interests by establishing a balanced relationship of interests which is good for the development of science and culture between legislators and the public. There is a lack of rules on the relative interests of reverse engineering software in traditional copyright law. The existing laws generally accept that it is legal to acquire trade secrets by using reverse engineering. The focus of the value orientation analysis should be the whole legal system. The conclusion that allowing the use of reverse engineering software is good for promoting social welfare can be drawn by comparing the similarities and differences of the reverse engineering software and the reverse engineering in traditional manufacturing industry based on the value evaluation of existing laws. The key of managing the problem of using reverse engineering software to plagiarize is to definitude infringement determination standards and to improve judging techniques by making laws, interpreting laws and applying laws.

Keywords: copyright  reverse engineering software  fair use  trade secret

From: China legal Science 2013(4)

Translated by: Han Dongsheng