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Beeper vs Apple battle intensifies: Lawmakers demand DOJ investigation - Android Authority
(www.androidauthority.com)
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
It's not a public API. Hacking someone's private API is already against law - charging $$ for it moreso.
Reverse engineering an API is not illegal
Reverse engineering it is not, sure. And Beeper could do that and run their own messaging service with their own infrastructure running their reverse engineered version.
And that's what they're doing.
That's not what they're doing. They're using Apple's version for free. They're also encouring their users to violate their terms of service agreements with Apple en-masse.