News Release
Contact: Chris McManes
Senior Public Relations Coordinator
Phone: + 1 202 785 0017, ext. 8356
E-Mail:
c.mcmanes@ieee.org
IEEE-USA Supports Reverse Engineering in Brief
Before Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals
WASHINGTON (09 February 2005)
— IEEE-USA
filed an amicus curiae brief on 24
January in support of reverse engineering for
interoperability in the U.S. Court of Appeals
for the Eighth Circuit in the case of
Blizzard Entertainment v. Internet Gateway
(No. 04-3654).
IEEE-USA’s “friend-of-the-court” brief seeks
reversal of a September 2004 Federal District
Court decision in favor of Blizzard, a computer
game company. The Court basically ruled that by
opening the shrink wrap of a software package,
or clicking on a button during installation, the
end user gives up fair use rights, including
reverse engineering, granted under Section 107
of the Copyright Act.
Reverse engineering is a common and recognized
practice, particularly in computer software, and
is extremely important to technological
advancement. IEEE-USA defines reverse
engineering as the discovery by engineering
techniques of the underlying ideas and
principles that govern how a machine, computer
program or other technological device works.
“Ultimately, the greatest benefits from reverse
engineering are reaped by the public at large,”
IEEE-USA’s brief said. “The positive
exploitation of ideas expressed in copyrighted
works … over the past two decades is readily
apparent: advanced, competitive computer
software industries have fueled the explosive
and enlightening development of the Internet as
well as many technology-based modern products.”
According to IEEE-USA, by exploiting shrink-wrap
and click-wrap agreements, software publishers
have attempted to use state-based contract law
to trump fair-use rights granted under federal
law. The organization believes that such
agreements pose a danger to “the nation’s
intellectual property system” and will chill
innovation.
The brief is available at
www.ieeeusa.org/policy/POLICY/2005/DavidsonvBlizzard.pdf.
IEEE-USA is an organizational unit of the IEEE.
It was created in 1973 to advance the public
good and promote the careers and public policy
interests of the more than 220,000 technology
professionals who are U.S. members of the IEEE.
The IEEE is the world's largest technical
professional society. For more information, go
to
www.ieeeusa.org.
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Last Update:
08 January 2009
Staff Contact: Pender M. McCarter,
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