We all know that proprietary software limits the user's ability to modify and redistribute the software.
However, fair use often allow copyrighted works to be modified and redistributed for certain cases. One such situation is the case of parody, where one modifies the work to poke fun at and comment on the original. This got me thinking: could software also fall under fair use?
Consider the following example:
I take a copy of Microsoft (tm) Windows (tm) 10 (tm) (r) (c), and modify it. I keep the core OS "functionality" while modifying it to make fun of Microsoft's predatory business practices in promoting the adoption of their software.
I would then separately release a patch that just so happens to reverse all the changes I've made to the original code, and revert it to original functionality.
In a hypothetical situation, do you think this would work (ignoring the fact that it would require me to use Windows)? I wonder how fair use might apply to DLLs, and whether or not I'd have to make parodic changes to every individually licensed file, or if modification of the system a whole would be sufficient.