Reverse-engineering someone else´s software: is it legal?

The author covers the legal issues of reverse-engineering someone else´s software, explaining what reverse-engineering activities the courts have found to be acceptable and what legal applications are for the knowledge you gained from reverse engineering. She also defines ´reverse engineering´ and presents two theories regarding its use: the strict-constructionist theory, which holds that reverse-engineering copyrighted software is always illegal, and the pragmatist theory, which takes a much more liberal view of the fair-use privilege.<>