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The agreement prohibits users from circumventing technical limitations of the End User Services, enabling disabled or prohibited functionality, and decompiling, extracting source code from, or reverse engineering the services.
This analysis describes what Stripe's agreement states, permits, or reserves. It does not constitute a legal determination about enforceability. Regulatory applicability and practical outcomes may vary by jurisdiction, enforcement context, and individual circumstances. Read our methodology
This provision establishes standard software license restrictions on reverse engineering and technical circumvention, which are common in software and platform agreements and may interact with statutory exceptions available under applicable copyright law in certain jurisdictions.
Interpretive note: Statutory exceptions to reverse engineering restrictions under EU Software Directive and UK copyright law may limit the enforceability of this prohibition for interoperability or security research purposes in those jurisdictions.
Under this clause, users may not attempt to access source code, circumvent technical restrictions, or enable functionality that Stripe has disabled within the End User Services. Statutory exceptions to reverse engineering restrictions may apply in certain jurisdictions, including the EU and UK, for purposes of interoperability.
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"You must not, and must not allow others to: Work around any of the technical limitations of the End User Services, or enable functionality that is disabled or prohibited; Decompile, extract source code, or reverse engineer the End User Services.Excerpt from Stripe's Acceptable Use Policy
1. REGULATORY LANDSCAPE: This provision engages copyright law and the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act in the United States, as well as the EU Software Directive, which provides statutory rights to decompile software for interoperability purposes that may limit the enforceability of contractual reverse engineering restrictions. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act also addresses circumvention of technical protection measures in the U.S. context. 2. GOVERNANCE EXPOSURE: Low to Medium. Reverse engineering and decompilation restrictions are standard in software license agreements. However, the interaction with statutory interoperability rights in the EU and UK means that blanket contractual prohibitions may not be fully enforceable in those jurisdictions for certain research or interoperability purposes. 3. JURISDICTION FLAGS: EU users retain rights under the Software Directive to decompile software for interoperability purposes that cannot be contractually waived. UK users retain equivalent protections under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. Security researchers in the United States may have limited protections under certain DMCA exemptions. 4. CONTRACT AND VENDOR IMPLICATIONS: This restriction is standard in commercial software agreements and is unlikely to create unusual procurement or vendor assessment concerns. However, organizations conducting security assessments or penetration testing of their own integrations with Stripe's End User Services should confirm whether such activities are covered by a separate agreement or authorization. 5. COMPLIANCE CONSIDERATIONS: Legal teams should note that while the contractual prohibition is broadly stated, statutory rights in the EU and UK may preserve certain reverse engineering activities for interoperability despite contractual restrictions. Security research activities should be evaluated against both this provision and applicable law before proceeding.
Regulatory citations, enforcement risk, and due diligence action items.
Provision-level monitoring, governance timelines, and regulatory mapping built from archived source documents and historical version tracking.
This provision establishes standard software license restrictions on reverse engineering and technical circumvention, which are common in software and platform agreements and may interact with statutory exceptions available under applicable copyright law in certain jurisdictions.
Under this clause, users may not attempt to access source code, circumvent technical restrictions, or enable functionality that Stripe has disabled within the End User Services. Statutory exceptions to reverse engineering restrictions may apply in certain jurisdictions, including the EU and UK, for purposes of interoperability.
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