Three courts have ruled the practice is legal, while another said it could violate the DMCA. In January Sony used that law and others to sue George Hotz, one of Allegra's fellow iPhone hackers, for reverse engineering the PlayStation 3.

FORBES: Focus

In order for Romania to get those computers it needed, it would buy, say, one computer from IBM (IBM) and then set its computer scientists to work reverse engineering the computer and building similar ones for internal use.

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While technology can certainly be a force multiplier for good or evil, it's difficult to imagine a pure A.I. approach reverse-engineering the machinations of a terrorist mastermind.

CNN: People and computers need each other