I agree with Vu Nhu Khanh.

I own about 10 IC handlers. These are expensive machines that insert a chip into a tester, and then remove it and deposit it into a good bin or a bad bin. They are very complex machines with many custom components. The original manufacturers of all of my machines have either discontinued the machine or are no longer in business.

When a machine breaks, it is very difficult to obtain a replacement part. Frequently, I have to give the broken part to a machine shop and tell them to make me another one just like the one that broke.

Is this moral? Or does it infringe on the intellectual property rights of the person who created the gear in the first place? And is there any difference in replacing a chip instead of replacing a gear?

Legalities aside, I think that it is moral to replace parts of a machine you own, especially if the original manufacturer cannot or will not. Even if those parts contain "code".

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There are many acts whose legality and morality depend on the circumstances. I think copying code is one of those acts.