# Ethics: Thief vs. Student

**URL:** <https://forum.kirupa.com/t/ethics-thief-vs-student/162558>\
**Category:** random\
**Created:** [September 14, 2005, 11:05am UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/ethics-thief-vs-student/162558 "2005-09-14T11:05:44Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![daheroes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4af34b/32.png) [@daheroes](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/daheroes)\
**Post date:** [September 14, 2005, 11:05am UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/ethics-thief-vs-student/162558/1 "2005-09-14T11:05:44Z")

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Hello all.

I have an ethical question for all you programmers out there. Is it ethical to decompile other peoples’ .SWFs to learn how they did something? Or is it theft? I mean, if the purpose is to understand the underlying interface, not just to completely copy someone else’s work. And this is limited to code only, not image s or sounds.

What do you think?

-Brekk