Legal and Ethical Issues of Reverse Engineering the Video Game

Abstract

A massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) is a type of online video game that allows many players to participate in the game simultaneously; Players can interact with each other worldwide to cooperate or compete (Gose, 2014). Reverse engineering could enable the company to improve the efficiency and quality of the game product (CSCHEAFER, 2020). Video game companies could examine the strength of a game system while finding competing companies’ weaknesses in terms of security, interoperability, and performance (NC State University, n.d.). The author will analyze intellectual property laws to help understand how to protect the video game industry when implementing reverse engineering. Additionally, the author will explain how a video game companies could strengthen the legal and ethical frameworks for protecting the legal rights of the video game industry, such as the sale, distribution, licensing of games. When a company spends time and money to develop a new game, it should put itself into other inventors’ shoes to think about whether it is ethical and legal to reverse engineer others’ products without significantly hurting their economic benefits and intellectual property rights (GeeksPrep, n.d.). Moreover, this paper will illustrate the moral obligation of companies and the importance of minimizing the risk of harm to companies and inventors during reverse engineering products.