Fyi… reverse engineering is not illegal… at all. Why in the world would you think it is?
And… What’s surprising about it being illegal to be paid for doing something illegal? … seriously? I pulled out the best part of your response to highlight how silly belief is. It’s an utterly circular argument that avoids the need for logic or even a reason… nice… basically you just said ‘you can’t do it cuz… just cuz.’
My point, that you unfortunately missed, is that I believe it ISN’T illegal for them to do kind of work. So instead of just spitting back that it is illegal, share why you think it is. I bet you can’t though… because it’s not really illegal. And please don’t just yell back ‘copyright infringement’… unless you tell me in what way. Because a Judge would want a more comprehensive answer than the simple category your claim falls under, they’d want the reason why! And as soon as I say to the Judge that I’m doing reverse-engineering for research and that I’m NOT making money from it… NOT releasing it to anyone… NOT damaging its market value… I’d say I’m pretty much in the clear.