[averagewall]

Can you identify a type of app for which reverse engineering it would be easier than writing their own? Software is usually easier to write than to read. If an app has such a magic secret sauce, and it's of value, then it should be protected by patent or copyright anyway.

An example that comes to mind is a high speed image compression app for taking rapid sequences of photos. Apple bought the company or the rights so they could include it themselves.

[beobab]

In my experience, it's always been easier for me to implement something once I've seen a working example of it. That's basically what examples are for: A "cheat sheet" for reverse engineers.

Software is only easier to write than read if you have an idea what it's supposed to do. If you've ever googled "how do I do X?", then you likely have reverse engineered the answer you found to fit your particular use case.

In addition, and in some countries, you can't patent software (thankfully), and so innovation comes through reverse engineering naturally.

[philwelch]

And how many of those working code examples came from decompiled code?