It's usually pretty safe to ignore what the law has to say about copyright, because by the time that matters you would have to be dealing with lawyers. That's not the problem.
What you seriously want to avoid is doing things that attract the attention of lawyers, because they have a habit of making things expensive. The bigger the company, the bigger the law firm and the more expensive they like to make it. Regardless of the law, if there is a serious risk of attracting the attention of WhatsApp or their lawyers, you might want to reconsider. And the best way to avoid attracting attention is not to tell anyone what you're doing. There is a reasonable chance that just posting the application name on a mailing list like this (which has a web-facing public interface) will be enough that eventually it will get you noticed. With the lawyer-related consequences mentioned above. This is not the way I would recommend going about a project like this. Regards David M Bennett FACS Andl - A New Database Language - andl.org -----Original Message----- From: sqlite-users-boun...@mailinglists.sqlite.org [mailto:sqlite-users-bounces at mailinglists.sqlite.org] On Behalf Of Darko Volaric Sent: Tuesday, 30 June 2015 1:47 PM To: General Discussion of SQLite Database Subject: Re: [sqlite] Tables and Columns of Database of Whatsapp It should be kept in mind that lawyers routinely put things in these "click-through agreements" that is unenforceable or illegal. It may be perfectly legal to reverse engineer, for example: ( from https://www.eff.org/issues/coders/reverse-engineering-faq ) "Courts have found that reverse engineering for interoperability, for example, can be a fair use." If it's being used for teaching it can also be fair use: ( from http://www.teachingcopyright.org/handout/fair-use-faq ) "the court found that the biographer's use was fair, in part because the biographer's purpose was to educate and inform the public" Of course this reflects US law but it most likely also applies in Germany, and is probably even more favorable for fair use there. On Mon, Jun 29, 2015 at 6:42 AM, John McKown <john.archie.mckown at gmail.com> wrote: > On Sun, Jun 28, 2015 at 7:24 AM, <bob_sqlite at web.de> wrote: > > > Hi, > > > > I teach pupils SQL in school. > > > > I want to create exercises about the SQLite database of Whatsapp. > > > > Can you tell me the names of tables and the names of columns? > > > > For the tables, I'll think of data. > > > > Thank you, > > > > Bob > > > > I'm going to go a bit sideways on this, I hope it is not objectionable. > Have you contacted Whatsapp about this? I ask because on their web > site at https://www.whatsapp.com/legal/, it specifically has legalese saying " > (iii) you will not attempt to reverse engineer, alter or modify any > part of the Service;" I am not any kind of a lawyer. But it _might_ be > argued (similar to Oracle vs. Google on the Java API) that the schema > of the SQLite data base is "part of the Service" and that, especially > by using it for teaching purposes, you are "reverse engineering" it. > Yes, likely a extreme position. But IP lawyers can be sharks. Just > myself, personally, I'd contact Whatsapp and simply ask permission, > perhaps explaining what you want to do and why you thought that their > DB would be a good teaching scenario for your students. > > Again, I'm just trying urge caution in today's litigious society. I > don't mean to imply that you are doing anything illegal or immoral (or > fattening <grin/>). > > > -- > > Schrodinger's backup: The condition of any backup is unknown until a > restore is attempted. > > Yoda of Borg, we are. Futile, resistance is, yes. Assimilated, you will be. > > My sister opened a computer store in Hawaii. She sells C shells down > by the seashore. > If someone tell you that nothing is impossible: > Ask him to dribble a football. > > He's about as useful as a wax frying pan. > > 10 to the 12th power microphones = 1 Megaphone > > Maranatha! <>< > John McKown > _______________________________________________ > sqlite-users mailing list > sqlite-users at mailinglists.sqlite.org > http://mailinglists.sqlite.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/sqlite-users > _______________________________________________ sqlite-users mailing list sqlite-users at mailinglists.sqlite.org http://mailinglists.sqlite.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/sqlite-users
