rickman wrote in :

Reverse engineering is legal and can not be
restricted by contract in the EU and other places.


As far as I know, even in the EU it's contentious, and that to avoid
litigation entirely it is wise to establish an exemption to the DMCA as well,
via its 'interoperability clause'. This regards copyright rather than patent
though, but copyright is tough, never mind 10 years, try 150, or longer if
the inheritor chooses to legally extend it. I doubt I'll run into this issue,
especially as interoperability was the first intent of my work.