"Transmission" By Hari Kunzru. "As a high school student in Bulgaria he had learned to use a machine called a PRavetz 82, mass-produced by the state computer company from shamelessly reverse-engineered Apple IIe components. (179)"

Reverse engineering involves taking a complex technological device (software, mechanical device, other electronics) apart to understand the main idea behind it. Then after analysis, the individual usually puts it together in a new way that does the same thing but slightly modified. Under US law (The Digital Millenium Coptight act, DMCA, of 1998), this deconstruction of a patented product can be seen as a infringement. reverse engineering is legal for interoperability, encryption research, security testing, and academic purposes. It is only illegal if the results are used to infringe upon a patent or circumvent Digital Rights Management technology.

http://www.woodmann.com/crackz/Tools.htm

http://www.chillingeffects.org/reverse/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reverse_engineering

Reversing: Secrets of Reverse Engineering - by Eldad Eilam

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DMCA

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Rights_Management