Wondering why it didn't really get out there tho.

The rest of the website has more information about the journey, and an actual fake Skype client.

See page 4 [PDF]: http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2...

For interoperability purpose, "reverse engineering is a legal practice, and that the distribution of software using a protocol found in this way is not illegal"

Journalistic treatment has probably distorted the facts so someone should probably go read the actual decision.

Hard to say, probably no from what I read here, but I don't know what the past decisions were.

It's indeed pretty restrictive, some parts:

> Les informations nécessaires à l'interopérabilité n'ont pas déjà été rendues facilement et rapidement accessibles aux personnes mentionnées au 1° ci-dessus

> Informations required for interoperability, haven't been easily and quickly accessible.

This one is pretty easy to argue, unless you reverse engineer an application that implement a standardized protocol / format.

> ces actes sont limités aux parties du logiciel d'origine nécessaires à cette interopérabilité.

> You can only reverse engineer the parts needed for interoperability

Make sense.

> Les informations ainsi obtenues ne peuvent être communiquées à des tiers sauf si cela est nécessaire à l'interopérabilité du logiciel créé de façon indépendante ;

> Obtained informations cannot be shared with others unless it's required for interoperability.

Should be easy to workaround by making an open source library.

IV. The reproduction of the code of the software or the translation of the shape of the code is not subject to the author's authorization when the reproduction or translation in the sense of 1° and 2° of article L. 122-6 is essential to get the information necessary to the interoperability of an independently created software with other softwares provided the following conditions are met:

1) those actions are fulfilled by the person with the right to use one copy of the software or on his behalf by someone empowered to this end;

2) the informations needed for interoperability have not been easily and quickly available to the people mentioned at 1° above;

3) and those actions are limited to the part of the original software needed to this interoperabilty

The information obtained this way [disassembly] shall not be:

1) Neither used for any other purpose than interoperability of the independently created software

2) Neither communicated to thirds parties unless that is necessary for the interoperability of the independently created software

3) Neither used for development, production or sale of a software whose expression is substantially similar or for any other act infringing the author's copyright

(You should be happy and thankful, perhaps. But not proud, because, to any reasonable approximation, you have had nothing to do with it.)

I agree that being proud of where you're born is silly; but being proud of where you chose to live is slightly different.

If you are born beautiful, can't you be proud of it?

If you are part of an ancient and rich civilization, can't you be proud of it?

Now if you are part of an ancient and rich civilization and you continue to further that civilization, that you can be proud of.

Why wouldn't personal beauty, health or intelligence be considered part of that civilization - and if I procreate, I am furthering it :)

It really boils down to you as an individual vs the country you are enlisted in.

A granfalloon is a false karass. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bokononism .

You can be proud of your kids because they belong to you. You can be proud of your family because you belong to it. You can be proud of your favorite sports team because you root for them.

BUT if you can be proud of it for its accomplishments, you also should be ashamed of it because of its errors.

Nationalists are people who love to claim the accomplishments of their country, but deny its errors.

EDIT: This is not to say that one has to mention all errors everytime one expresses pride.

edit: link http://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/affichTexteArticle.do;jsession...

Edit : I was talking about the traffic fines.

Source : I'm French, which may explain my broken English.

I think it's switzerland [0]

[0] http://www.rts.ch/info/suisse/1118676-bientot-des-amendes-se...

Friendly fyi: "until" is generally exclusive in English. An similar word that is inclusive is "through". So "I'm on vacation until Monday" implies they will be in the office on Monday, but "I'm on vacation through Monday" implies they will be back Tuesday. I understood what you meant, but for a moment I thought you were saying that you had to pay for highschool in France.

Well, you've already understood: I'm french too ;)

The question is if it's legal to talk to the skype servers this way.....

This can be compared to letting people try reverse engineer some indigenous language in my eyes.

I don't know if it's just because the judges are more sane but well done. I think I respect the french slightly more now :)

The EU has had a few incidents where targeted lobbying efforts from the entertainment-industry almost has gone through unnoticed and uncontested.

For others proprietary softwares, breaking the compatibility with old versions is hardly conceivable: If Photoshop or AutoCAD where suddenly unable to use read and write the terabytes of data created by their users, those users would probably throw their PC through the window and never buy again a proprietary software...

Also, the ability to run chat bots on the Skype network is something that can be quite valuable for certain companies.

And, most remarkably, according to the EU legislation which tends to hinder lobbyists, at least once in a blue moon.