QBXML import

[Andrew Moise]

On Fri, Mar 18, 2016 at 12:12 PM, John Ralls <jralls at ceridwen.us> wrote:
> The cases where it was held to be legal were those where no EULA or ToS
> prohibited reverse engineering, so you win that point. However Intuit's
> EULAs and ToSes do prohibit reverse engineering.

  Maybe so, but that only applies to people who've agreed to the EULA.
I'm not convinced that opening a .qbxml file and examining it (it
seems like it has a pretty straightforward structure) constitutes
reverse engineering, but even if it is, I don't own a copy of
Quickbooks and I've never agreed to their SDK license.
  It's very common to read a proprietary file format as part of a free
software program. Openoffice opens Word documents because they reverse
engineered the format, Gimp opens Photoshop documents, and so on. I'm
sure the makers of the competing software would prefer they didn't,
but US law is clear that that's a legally protected activity to engage
in.
  Like I said, I do understand that US companies sometimes pursue
legal action on absurd grounds; I wouldn't try to tell you what you
should do or be comfortable with. But my assessment is that you're
jumping at shadows.
  -Andrew