Mike Bond wrote:
On the question of determining compatibility, what methods are we "allowed" to persue? For instance, I created a small test app for the exec variants, tested it under Windows NT then under Wine. I would hope this is a valid method, but with the way the lawyers work, it's sometimes hard to tell.
Big disclaimer: I am not a lawyer; if you end up in court because you pay attention to anything I say, that's just too darn bad.
It depends on which country you're in. What you've done is classic "black box" reverse engineering, which has historically been protected by the U.S. legal system. Even the DMCA protects it as long as you don't decrypt anything.
UCITA in its unaltered form, however, legitimizes all those software license agreements that U.S. courts have found unenforceable. So I guess it's starting to depends on what state you're in if you're in the U.S.