Say I have a piece of code, x (which is copyright) which always returns the same output for a given input (e.g. a function that implements a math formula or a function that retrieves some value from an internal data table stored in the dll or whatever) Lets then say that I havent seen this code (either origonal C code or disassembly) Say I was to write a program that calls this function for all valid inputs and prints the inputs and outputs. If I was to take the output of this program and, without refering to the origonal function or the dump program in any way (i.e. using just the "truth table" for the function) generate a function that, for any given input, generates the same output as the original, have I broken the law?
Short answer: In depends on the nature of the output data and in which country you are in.
Long answer: If the output data for each input data is not mearly a pure statement of some facts but an unique expression about something (be it some facts or otherwise) it is not permitted in any country.
Note however that in some cases it might be possible to apply some another function and get rid of the unique expression and merely get the pure fact though... However in some countries it still depends on the nature of the pure facts though.
In the US, it doesn't matter at all, see the "Feist" decision.
In the Commonwealth countries and some other countries including my home country Sweden, each fact in and of itself is not protected either, however large collections of facts have some sort of protection as a whole and to some lesser degree to subsets of the whole collection.
This is in order to protect the effort of collecting the facts and while case laws AFAIR at least in Sweden is a little unclear, it mostly seems to apply to collections of facts that have required a significant effort to collect...
So functions the produce results that are purely algoritmic in nature are not protected.
As far as Wine is concerned though I can't think of any Windows API that: 1. Returns pure facts (not having any unique expression) 2. Would fulfill the requirement of needed a significant effort to collect to collect the fact.
So no I wouldn't worry about it as far as Wine is concerned.