Pap Uhotih
Royal Amarr Institute Amarr Empire
21
|
Posted - 2013.09.05 20:24:00 -
[2] - Quote
Dirk Decibel wrote: If you regard the (structure) of the cache files as 'source code' it would apply, but that's getting a bit technical on the linguistics.
Computer science would consider that the cache was a part of the program, a program can be considered to be an area of memory, there is no limitation as to the volatility of that memory or the type or format of information stored at a location. That is a little technical but if you try to draw a line around what is Eve you would not be able to leave the cache on the outside of it.
It wouldn't count as source code as such, im not sure what's in it exactly but really source code is instructions where as a cache is data storage, it is what to process rather than how to process it. That said, holistically the cache will at some point form part of an instruction and an instruction cut into three is still an instruction even if it must be re-assembled to make sense.
The cache is compiled, it must be or it couldn't be there, the only way to read it is to decompile it - even if it is written in an open format. If you whipped out the binary and used your brain to read it that would still be decompiling. The cache clearly belongs to/is a part of the program and can not be treated or considered as if it is simply a random assembly of data that has occurred on your hard drive.
Discovering how the program works is obviously reverse engineering and you are learning a lot about an area of the program if you know that it is using a cache and the format of that cache - also as you know that information is coming via a data stream you could use that knowledge to discover more but I really don't think its a great plan to elaborate on how that is the case.
I don't see how there is even a slight question of if its against the EULA, it clearly is however there is effectively missing functionality and it is a nice courtesy from CCP that cache scraping is ignored. It would be in many ways much more sensible for them to take the opposite approach as it makes things a lot clearer and simpler. Definitely leave lawyers behind. |