文档介绍：APRIL 10, 2002 4/10/02 9:02 PM
The Law and Economics of Reverse Engineering
Pamela Samuelson† and Suzanne Scotchmer††
CONTENTS
I. INTRODUCTION ...............................................................................1577
II. REVERSE ENGINEERING IN TRADITIONAL MANUFACTURING
INDUSTRIES.....................................................................................1582
A. A Legal Perspective on Reverse Engineering..........................1582
B. An Economic Perspective on Reverse Engineering.................1585
C. Anti-Plug-Mold Laws: An Exception to Reverse
Engineering Rules?..................................................................1591
III. REVERSE ENGINEERING IN THE SEMICONDUCTOR INDUSTRY .......1595
A. Perturbations in Product Life Cycles in the Chip Industry .....1596
B. Copyright or Sui Generis Protection for Chip Designs?.........1598
C. An Economic Rationale for the SCPA Rules............................1603
D. Post-SCPA Developments........................................................1605
IV. REVERSE ENGINEERING IN PUTER SOFTWARE
INDUSTRY .......................................................................................1607
A. Reverse Engineering of Software and Copyright Law.............1608
B. The Economics of Interoperability and Software
Reverse Engineering................................................................1613
† Professor of Law and Information Management, University of California at Berkeley.
†† Professor of Economics and Public Policy, University of California at Berkeley.
Research support for this Article was provided by NSF Grants Nos. 98 18689 and 99 79852.
We wish to thank Kirsten Roe, Eddan Katz, and Christine Duh for their excellent research
assistance in connection with this Article. We are also grateful for ments on earlier
drafts by Rochelle Cooper Dreyfuss, Joseph Farrell, Neil Gandal, Robert J. Glushko, Wendy J.
Gordon, Mark A. Lemley, Eja