n 1996, Hanpeter van Vliet released a beta version of a Java decompiler named Mocha, and an obfuscator named Crema. A controversy erupted and he temporarily withdrew Mocha from public distribution.

I have no sympathy for the people who opposed the release of Mocha. It is just a tool and is not inherently "bad" or "wrong". Attempting to ban tools like Mocha to prevent reverse engineering of software is like trying to ban socket sets to prevent reverse engineering of automobiles. Disassemblers and decompilers for other languages have been available for years, and have many legitimate uses.


Sad news about the author

I've been informed that Hanpeter died of cancer on December 31, 1996, at the age of 34.