Legal Question in Intellectual Property in North Carolina
Reverse Engineering, Encryption Research, and Emulation
Assume there is an online game called Game X. The game is solely online, meaning that you can only play it while connected to the internet and connected to Company Y's server for Game X. There is a fee of Z dollars per month to play the game.
Company Y does not charge to download the game client for Game X, that is a free download. The only fee you must pay (aside your own ISP fee) is the Z dollars per month for each account you wish to use on their game servers.
Their Terms of Service (ToS) prohibits reverse-engineering but the Uniform Computer Information Transactions Act (UCITA) is not passed in North Carolina (where I reside).
My question is that if I were to reverse engineer the game client's communication to the game server for Game X and research their encryption for aforementioned communications would that be legal?
After such efforts, I would want to build a server software that could emulate Game X's server software purely based on my research results alone. Would it be legal to do so?
If I were to make the emulated 'Game X' server software compatible with the official Game X client, would this be legal? I would not condone such interoperability but it would be supported by the emulated server software.
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: Reverse Engineering, Encryption Research, and Emulation
Did you sign a non-disclosure agreement? Did your download come with an agreement online, to the terms of which you had to agree (checking a box, usually) before downloading the game? Also, suggest you go on to Wikipedia and check the topic of Copyright Law and Trade Secret law. You will find that the vendor is protected against being ripped off in the way you propose.
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