Does the license for Microsoft Windows forbid you to
modify the software, e.g. by hacking the machine language
code?  I assume it does but thought I'd better check.

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Request for Question Clarification by tutuzdad-ga on 17 Mar 2004 11:36 PST

The End User License Agreement (EULA) says this:

"Limitations on Reverse Engineering, Decompilation, and Disassembly. 

You may not reverse engineer, decompile, or disassemble the SOFTWARE,
except and only to the extent that such activity is expressly
permitted by applicable law notwithstanding this limitation."
MICROSOFT WINDOWS END USER LICENSE AGREEMENT
http://www.neoware.com/docs/license/ms.html

I can close your question for you if this answers your question satisfactorily. 

Regards;
tutuzdad-ga

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Clarification of Question by bugbear-ga on 18 Mar 2004 09:48 PST

You could in principle modify the binary without doing
those things.  Is there nothing in the EULA about
modification specifically.

A couple of thoughts:  The EULA at
http://www.neoware.com/docs/license/ms.html appears to be an end user
license agreement for Microsoft embedded systems.  This is technically
different from, e.g., the EULA that accompanies Windows XP
Professional or some other operating system since a typical OS running
on a desktop or laptop is not an "embedded system."  Are you talking
about Windows CE by chance?  Anyway, the provision appears to be the
same as that contained in the current Windows XP Pro EULA (which you
may read, if you have XP Pro, by selecting "My Computer," selecting
"Help," selecting "About Windows," and clicking on "End User License
Agreement.")  Therein you will find provisions discussing reverse
engineering, but you may have a different version of the EULA
depending on the OS and service pack you are running.  So try to
identify what OS and service pack you are running and then read the
EULA for that OS.

Even if your specific EULA is the same as that for the embedded system
license, note that it does not say you cannot reverse engineer the
code.  It says you may only do it to the extent permitted by governing
law.  US copyright law inherently recognizes the right to reverse
engineer software (are you in the US?) as long as you do it in a
manner that does not violate Microsoft's copyrights.