[ale] [WAY OT]Reverse Engineering MS Visual Basic Applications

[Ray Knight]

On Mon, 2003-09-29 at 16:23, Jonathan Glass wrote:
> A friend of mine had some custom software written by a small consulting
> firm.  The firm has since fallen on hard times, split up, and told him
> he's out of luck.  They did (supposedly) provide him with a document
> spelling out his legal right to reverse engineer the software.  Anyone
> know how I should proceed here?  Is this legal, does anyone on this list
> know how to do or contract for this type of work?
> 
> TIA

This is exactly why you should only use Open Source/free software. 
However, if you find it necessary to purchase custom software of this
sort without source code, the source code should be put into escrow for
just such an eventuality.

Is the firm or whatever remains of it not willing to provide source
code?  If not your best bet may be to determine the functionality and
then provide a replacement application.

-- 
Ray Knight <audilover at atlantabroadband.com>