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@petabyt
Created January 1, 2022 03:10
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Is firmware reverse engineering legal?

Yes.
Kind of.

I'm not a lawyer, nor have I talked to one, but this is my analysis:

Copyright is a nightmare to work with. There are no garuntees
that a company won't sue you.

As for US law, "Reverse engineering (section 1201(f))"

This exception permits circumvention, and the development of technological means for such circumvention, by a person who has lawfully obtained a right to use a copy of a computer program for the sole purpose of identifying and analyzing elements of the program necessary to achieve interoperability with other programs, to the extent that such acts are permitted under copyright law.

If you have lawfully obtained a program, you can reverse engineer it
solely for interoperability, or the ability to run programs on it.

And if your project isn't commericial, most companies don't care enough
anyway.

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