From Louis Rossman:
Summary: Louis Rossmann explores the emergence of open-source alternatives to Adobe software built using artificial intelligence. The discussion examines the legal landscape of reverse engineering, current DMCA regulations, and the potential for future corporate lobbying efforts to restrict software interoperability and control digital ownership.
Excerpt from transcript:
… the reason that I find this interesting is because we already have laws in the books in the United States that make it illegal to break a digital lock, even if it’s for the purposes of fixing what you already own. That’s section 121 of the DMCA. If I want to rip my legally purchased DVD and put it onto my legally purchased Coen A2, I’m not allowed to do that. If I want to rip my legally purchased Blu-ray and put it onto my legally purchased smartphone, I can’t do that. If I want to create a tool that allows me to get information on diagnostics for my legally purchased $750,000 John Deere tractor, that is also illegal because I would be breaking a digital lock in order to do so. Even when I’m trying to fix my own legally purchased product, I’m not allowed to break a digital lock. And I wonder if you’re going to see more software companies push for updates to this, not to make us more free, but rather to make us more imprisoned in terms of not allowing us to use AI to do clean room implementations of software like what’s been going on for over 30 to 40 years with processors, with many other pieces of software, and everything else.
I wouldn’t be surprised if you see software companies push to outlaw decompiling and rebuilding programs or to tighten section 121 of the DMCA to create some sort of new legislation that bans people from doing what this gentleman did here. Even though what he did is in my opinion absolutely heroic and again the basis of what reverse engineering is based on.
Related:
- Every app on Earth is now open source… whether it likes it or not
- Kinsella, “The Problem with Intellectual Property,” Springer 2026
- Libertarian Answer Man: Fine Print, The Doctrine of Unconscionability, Good Faith, Forced Heirship, Lesion Beyond Moiety
- The Libertarian View on Fine Print, Shrinkwrap, Clickwrap



















