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Rockstar is selling cracked game copies on Steam

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Re: Rockstar is selling cracked game copies on Steam

#201

Post by lmm »

CapstanRoller wrote: post #112
freejazz wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think people on HN understand what a derivative work is, considering how often I see it referenced incorrectly. You can't make a derivative work without a license. That's why it's derivative. It derivates from the copyrighted work and is therefore within the domain of the copyright and under the control of the copyright's owner. A Harry Potter spin-off about Hermione (I don't know anything about HP, sorry in…

>you cannot sell copies of your Hermione spin-off, because that'd be copyright infringement, because it is a derivative work But you can distribute it for free, as fanfiction. Also, a no-CD crack does not contain any of the original work. It's akin to a program that you can use to modify, say, your legally-purchased Harry Potter ebook in order to change all instances of "wand" to "wang"

> But you can distribute it for free, as fanfiction.

Not legally.

> Also, a no-CD crack does not contain any of the original work. It's akin to a program that you can use to modify, say, your legally-purchased Harry Potter ebook in order to change all instances of "wand" to "wang"

Doesn't matter, it's still a derivative work, just as a translation or annotation that doesn't contain any of the original text is a derivative work.

Re: Rockstar is selling cracked game copies on Steam

#203

Post by antiterra »

dragonwriter wrote: post #96
freejazz wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think people on HN understand what a derivative work is, considering how often I see it referenced incorrectly. You can't make a derivative work without a license. That's why it's derivative. It derivates from the copyrighted work and is therefore within the domain of the copyright and under the control of the copyright's owner. A Harry Potter spin-off about Hermione (I don't know anything about HP, sorry in…

> I don't think people on HN understand what a derivative work is, considering how often I see it referenced incorrectly. Very true. > You can't make a derivative work without a license. T You can , but it is a copyright violation to do so unless an exception (like Fair Use) applies. A derivative work is also a work eligible for copyright in its own right, and as such is copyright by the creator by operation of law w…

I thought Pickett v Prince established precedent that you can’t copyright an unauthorized derivative work.

See 17 U.S.C. §103(a), which says that derivative works can be copyrighted, but that does not extend to any part of the work in which such material has been used unlawfully.

(not a lawyer but I did audit this class at a law school)

Re: Rockstar is selling cracked game copies on Steam

#204

Post by favorited »

ArnoVW wrote: post #89
Guvante wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Likely Rockstar would counter sue for violating their original Copyright and the terms of use attached to them. At best it would be a wash, there is a decent chance the damages for the countersuit would lead to a net loss.

The can sue them for anti-circumvention statutes in the DMCA. But not for infringement, since the developers did not do the infringement, they only enabled it.

How did the cracked game enter circulation, if the crackers didn't redistribute it?

Re: Rockstar is selling cracked game copies on Steam

#205

Post by joshmn »

pizzafeelsright wrote: post #181
enos_feedler wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Former cracker for rzr here :) did not do this game unfortunately.

Question for you from the 17 year old me. Why did you do this? Fame? Money? Challenge? I didn't know enough to so it myself and no one would teach me.

I've done something similar in recent past on a large scale:

I did it because it was interesting, I wanted to prove DRM is a flawed concept and broken construct, and because the community which I built (as a result) was really great and a home to me when I didn't ever experience one.

It was never about money or fame, it was about providing something to people that had a value. People said the "thing" I provided was better than the "real thing", and that gave me a sense of pride: I'd never get hired by the company that made "real thing" to make their "thing" better because I didn't have the credentials on paper.

But at least my "thing" was better.

Re: Rockstar is selling cracked game copies on Steam

#206

Post by [deleted] »

timmb wrote: post #43
phpisthebest wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

pirating software (movies, and music) is a term from the 90's by the MPAA, Riaa, and Games industry in attempting to link the act of simple copyright infringement, a civil non-criminal violation of the law to violent robbery on the high seas... Cracking is a method of removing undesired features or inclusions from software, often licensing controls, or other anti-consumer features. Many many many people "cracked" the…

That was the scariest term they could come up with? The romantic swashbuckling seafarer, antagonising empires and declaring his own rules? Surely they could have done better. 'software fraud', 'software theft', 'forgery'... hmm well there's a reason I don't work in marketing obviously.

[deleted]

Re: Rockstar is selling cracked game copies on Steam

#208

Post by jamesfinlayson »

yomlica8 wrote: post #63
robbiet480 wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The game shown here, Midnight Club II, required the CD to be in the drive to play it. With the advent of Steam and companies releasing older games on Steam, they needed a way to bypass that check. Bypassing a CD (commonly called No-CD) was a very common crack/DRM bypass back in the day. Rockstar didn't want to bring up old source code and find someone who understood it enough to remove the check, so instead they just…

Are we sure they didn't just lose the source code entirely?

You'd hope not, but it could be backed on something like a tape drive: too much effort to retrieve and then access.

Re: Rockstar is selling cracked game copies on Steam

#209

Post by Stibinator »

dylan604 wrote: post #35
phpisthebest wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

pirating software (movies, and music) is a term from the 90's by the MPAA, Riaa, and Games industry in attempting to link the act of simple copyright infringement, a civil non-criminal violation of the law to violent robbery on the high seas... Cracking is a method of removing undesired features or inclusions from software, often licensing controls, or other anti-consumer features. Many many many people "cracked" the…

my favorite use was for software that required a USB dongle. if you lost the dongle, you lost access to the software. there is not "back up" option. so the cracking community came up with a way to emulate those dongles. the obvious abuse followed. we used the software for legit 1:1 installs to physical dongle on blade servers where all of the dongles could not be installed

I nursed my Lightwave dongle through my early career as an animator. I've lost so many pairs of glasses, several wallets, a couple of phones, but I know exactly which drawer that usb stick is sitting in now. Not that I reckon I'll ever touch LW again.

Re: Rockstar is selling cracked game copies on Steam

#210

Post by magic_hamster »

PrimeMcFly wrote: post #34
Reubend wrote: post #2

Could we get some more context than this tweet (which doesn't really explain what's going on)?

I didn't feel old today until I jumped on HN and saw someone who didn't know what 'cracked' means in the context of PC games.

Considering the rapid change in HN audience I suspect this person is simply uninformed.
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