> > > In my first experiments some years ago, i wondered if 
> tcpdumping to find
> > > out the protocol is some kind of reverse engineering? I don't 
> think so.
> > > LAT is patented i think, but does Compaq care too much about this?
> > 
> > The author is based in the UK.  I _think_ reverse engineering for
> > the purposes for interoperability is legal in the UK.  I'm fairly
> > sure it's legal here in Ireland, so it could be an EU-wide thing.
> > 
> Yes, it is. It's also so in the US; the most famous case is Compaq's 
> reverse engineering and reimplementation of the IBM PC BIOS.

But, I have a feeling that, in the US, you have to do a
clean-room implementation (person A reverse engineers and
writes a spec, gives the spec to person B and person B
re-implements it).

IANAL, but I don't think you have to do this here in Europe.  
Perhaps someone can clarify?

Later,
Kenn