I've had some software developed, now the coder is holding me for ransom.
brl: > I'm thinking the best way would be to get someone to reverse engineer the softwareYou don't have the source code?  He just gives you a crippled binary to demonstrate his progress which only works after authenticating with his server?I'm not sure why people here are telling you that there is either some ethical or legal problem with taking control of the work you already paid for.