Thread: Is it ethical to reverse engineer Runescape?

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  1. #1 Is it ethical to reverse engineer Runescape? 
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    It has been almost a decade since I got involved in the RSPS scene. Now I'm in my early 20's, majoring in marketing. Ethics is one of the more important elements in business(or atleast what they teach you in school).
    Question, are you okay with explaining to people that you "decompiled" someone else's property? I am thankful to learn Java, but I don't feel like I learned it the right ethical way. Does anyone else feel this way? If not, why?
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    There are two ways of thinking about this.
    I think what you want to hear is that reverse engineering a RuneScape client is much like using a gas cutter to break down the locks and intruding in someone's house.
    You're undoing the security methods they've applied to make sure their piece of intellectual property is secure.

    The DMCA doesn't disallow you to reverse engineer something but prohibits you from using the source code (or parts of it) in your own rsps.

    The second way of thinking it is much like doing molecular biology. I'm sorry if this analogy sounds a bit incomprehensible, I don't know a better way to explain it.
    It's completely harmless to be looking at how information in DNA is translated into protein and see how the protein formed out of a particular DNA (or RNA) sequence affects a cell's life. Introducing your own plasmid DNA into a bacteria so it can produce insulin doesn't sound like a bad idea.

    Simply speaking, what can put you into trouble is using the reverse engineered client for your own purpose of running an rsps, not figuring out how things in the client work.
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    Quote Originally Posted by Cartilage View Post
    There are two ways of thinking about this.
    I think what you want to hear is that reverse engineering a RuneScape client is much like using a gas cutter to break down the locks and intruding in someone's house.
    You're undoing the security methods they've applied to make sure their piece of intellectual property is secure.

    The DMCA doesn't disallow you to reverse engineer something but prohibits you from using the source code (or parts of it) in your own rsps.

    The second way of thinking it is much like doing molecular biology. I'm sorry if this analogy sounds a bit incomprehensible, I don't know a better way to explain it.
    It's completely harmless to be looking at how information in DNA is translated into protein and see how the protein formed out of a particular DNA (or RNA) sequence affects a cell's life. Introducing your own plasmid DNA into a bacteria so it can produce insulin doesn't sound like a bad idea.

    Simply speaking, what can put you into trouble is using the reverse engineered client for your own purpose of running an rsps, not figuring out how things in the client work.
    I think your example applies really well. To extend off that, if reversing it for personal knowledge is okay morally, what about distributing the knowledge?
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    microsoft and facebook became so big being "ethical" lmfao
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    "Small modification to the client to make it connect somewhere better "
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    Quote Originally Posted by Perseverance View Post
    It has been almost a decade since I got involved in the RSPS scene. Now I'm in my early 20's, majoring in marketing. Ethics is one of the more important elements in business(or atleast what they teach you in school).
    Question, are you okay with explaining to people that you "decompiled" someone else's property? I am thankful to learn Java, but I don't feel like I learned it the right ethical way. Does anyone else feel this way? If not, why?
    Of course it's not ethical. Lesson one of your ethics class should have taught you that.

    re the person saying the DMCA doesn't dis allow you from doing it - that's not a question of ethics, its one of law.


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    Quote Originally Posted by Thaciller View Post
    re the person saying the DMCA doesn't dis allow you from doing it - that's not a question of ethics, its one of law.
    and also it isn't quite true... afaik reverse-engineering for the purpose of interoperability is okay, but reverse-engineering to break copy protection is not.
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    Quote Originally Posted by Thaciller View Post
    Of course it's not ethical. Lesson one of your ethics class should have taught you that.
    Actually lesson one of an ethics class would tell you that pretty much everyone has different ideas about what is ethical. I assume you don't seriously think an ethics class just gives you a list of right and wrong
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    Quote Originally Posted by Thaciller View Post
    Of course it's not ethical. Lesson one of your ethics class should have taught you that.
    I guess 'ethics' is pretty much a subjective term when it comes to philosophy. I'm not sure what 'ethics' means in the context of business.
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    Quote Originally Posted by Thaciller View Post
    Of course it's not ethical. Lesson one of your ethics class should have taught you that.

    re the person saying the DMCA doesn't dis allow you from doing it - that's not a question of ethics, its one of law.
    Yeah but a lot of people would see it as unethical due to it breaking the law.
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