Hacker News Reader

This demand letter may become evidence in a future case and judges don't look kindly upon lies and deception.

Yes, but this claim is not that... It sounds like they're making an argument about trade secrets, without explicitly detailing the legal justification for it.

You definitely don't need to cite the legal justification for every demand you make in a demand letter.

You don't even need to have a valid justification to make a demand in a demand letter... it is common and normal to make arbitrary demands... they are negotiations.

Trade secrets aren't protected by law. That's why they aren't disclosed. If someone lawfully reverse engineers your trade secret, its secrecy disappears without legal recourse. Decompiling a binary for RE interop purposes is legal in the US.

That is a common misconception, but trade secrets are absolutely protected by law, in most countries around the world.

https://www.wipo.int/en/web/trade-secrets#systems

Now yes, they're fair game for reverse engineering, but that doesn't mean someone can't be mad about it and tell you not to do it.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com