DMCA And HostGator

I contacted HostGator a few days ago in regards to a website being hosted on their network. The blog post had a link to a decompiler that would decompile applications written by a certain program. The responses I received from Richard F. (Network Security Administrator) of HostGator was not what I expected.

At first, Richard F. wants to see the EULA of the software that the decompiler is made for. So, I send him the URL and even quote the EULA. It states, "Neither you nor any third party may modify, adapt, decompile or reverse engineer the Games." In addition, I pointed Richard to the author's blog where the author is not happy about the decompiler as people can use it to steal and ripoff games and applications written with this software. Richard F. then defends the decompiler by stating the following:

"Well, this is a complicated situation. Having the decompiler available is in itself not any violation of the EULA. However, if someone uses it then it's a violation of that EULA. Making the decompiler available solely as a source of information is not in any way infractionary, this has been held up in court cases with companies such as Microsoft."

It seems he is trying to use some alleged loophole of having it available for "information purposes only" does not make it illegal or a violation of HostGators TOS/AUP. I then notify him that it is also a DMCA violation as the only reason for reverse engineering per the DMCA is if the software is no longer available nor the author available. Neither of these conditions are met as the software that is decompiled is still being made and the community that uses the software is active. Richard F. then makes the following illogical analogy:

"Yes it could be seen as a violation of the DMCA. However, again, as an informational source, it is not in any violation. If we wanted to go on a tangent and say that this tool was written in, say C#, we could then hold Microsoft liable for creating both the C# language and an IDE to allow someone to write this tool. But they're not liable for what is created with or done with their tools, they merely provide them. This is where we are in this situation. Simply providing the information is not illegal."

Firstly, no one ever went on any tangent. Next, his analogy makes no sense. The fact of the matter is that the website being hosted on HostGator's network is distributing a decompiler that circumvents security measures in a program. People that use this particular software to compile their games and applications can have their source code revealed by a person simply running this decompiler.

I guess Richard F. is not used to dealing with techniaclly adept people. Therefore, he pulls a bunch of technical BS out of his gator butt and expects me to believe it.

I have forwarded this issue to The Planet as well as to the author that made the software being decompiled. I have notified him of HostGator condoning the use and distribution of this decompiler. I think it's pretty sad when a hosting company starts to defend immoral and unethical activities. And to think, this joker is actually has the position of "Network Security Administrator." He sounds like some kid barely out of high school computer science class.