>>>Hello,
>>>I have to modify an application that was written on Visual FoxPro 6 several years ago.
>>>The programmer who wrote it left our company and deleted all the source code. I tried to decompile the exe with REFOX and found it was encrypted and asks for a password. Is there any way to restore a source code? Efforts to contact the programmer have gone unanswered (he did not leave on good terms). I desperately need this password or I have to rewrite this huge and complicated application?
>>> Thanks in advance.
>>
>>While I know this can be done, or I should I say know a few people that can do it, the problem becomes a question of the legality of the matter. Who has the legal right to the code? The owners of the company will say 'we have', he was our employee after all. The programmer will say 'I do' intellectual property et al. Then comes the request of Lawyer's letter duly notarized stating that the owners of the company have the legal rights to the code, signed by BOTH parties (owners and programmer). This part never happens because the programmer disappeared or won't return your calls. Then there is the "pay $10,000.00 to decompile your application", because that will be my legal cost if I get sued by the programmer. That never happens either. So unless your company can go through these steps, you are looking at a huge rewrite.
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>Not true
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>She wrote "The programmer who wrote it left our company and deleted all the source code". This sounds like the programmer worked for the company.
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>If you work as an employee of a company as a programmer, any code you write for them belongs to the company. It's their product.
>If you're contractor working on a project for the company, unless you specify otherwise in your contract, you own the code, as it's a Work For Hire. See also this article

Kevin the article you pointed to states that there was no agreement between the work-for-hire and the company won the case. That article does not seem to prove your point. According to this article, with or withour an agreement, the company owns the code.
Nonetheless as you can see that for a person that could decompile this application, the situation is never clear cut.
I have seen many situations over the years where requests for proof of ownership have been made be me and others from an accredited independent lawyer to prove ownership of the code, and it always fails to materialize for some reason. It could be another company's software for all anyone knows.
Suffice it to say I have never decompiled a password protected software, when presented with this type of case. The company always chooses to re-write for some reason. Don't know why <g>