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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

#241

Post by freejazz »

bombcar wrote: post #176
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 can skirt incredibly close, however - search Amazon for “unofficial Harry Potter”.

That just means they haven't been sued, there is no copyright czar that makes sure infringement never happens. Owners need to sue.

Re: Rockstar is selling cracked game copies on Steam

#242

Post by bombcar »

freejazz wrote: post #241
bombcar wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can skirt incredibly close, however - search Amazon for “unofficial Harry Potter”.

That just means they haven't been sued, there is no copyright czar that makes sure infringement never happens. Owners need to sue.

It won't happen, as factual details can't be copyrighted.

So I can't write a story with HP characters, but I can't be copyright struck for writing that there is a book called Harry Potter that has these characteristics.

(The above is in the USA, other countries have different policies and rights.)

Re: Rockstar is selling cracked game copies on Steam

#243

Post by freejazz »

bombcar wrote: post #242
freejazz wrote: post #241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That just means they haven't been sued, there is no copyright czar that makes sure infringement never happens. Owners need to sue.

It won't happen, as factual details can't be copyrighted. So I can't write a story with HP characters, but I can't be copyright struck for writing that there is a book called Harry Potter that has these characteristics. (The above is in the USA, other countries have different policies and rights.)

Harry Potter isn't a fact. A book about the fact that Harry Potter was written and it's about wizards is about as long as that sentence.

Re: Rockstar is selling cracked game copies on Steam

#244

Post by nonethewiser »

function_seven wrote: post #133
nonethewiser wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Cracking is about removing anti-features Anti what features? Piracy?

Anti-backup, Anti-I-don't-have-a-cdrom-on-this-machine, Anti-I-lost-the-stupid-dongle, etc. Like parent says, cracking and piracy pair well, but I've had to do it many times just for compatibility reasons, on software I had purchased.

> Anti-backup, Anti-I-don't-have-a-cdrom-on-this-machine, Anti-I-lost-the-stupid-dongle, etc.

All perfectly understandable to me. But from the perspective of the people designing the anti-something system, wouldn't they call it piracy?

We can argue if piracy is a charitable enough name for bypassing copyright protections but that's irrelevant in terms of whether or not that is the thing the software provider is trying to do.

Re: Rockstar is selling cracked game copies on Steam

#245

Post by sjsdaiuasgdia »

capableweb wrote: post #233
sjsdaiuasgdia wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

First problem: You presume this person has another executable of provable provenance to check against. Second problem: There could be many different official executables for this game. Each would have a different hash. Provenance proving applies here too. Third problem: Two hash values doesn't communicate the actual story as well as what this person (who may or may not be a journalist, that appears to be your assumpt…

First solution: Yes, finding the PC CD for this game took me like 20 minutes, both new/old in even my country for something like 20 EUR. If the author wanted to, I'm sure they could have found it equally easy. Second solution: Not really, when you do CD releases you have a "gold master" which is the final burned CD that the other CDs are copied from. That's the one you use as the official one, as that's the one most…

What responsibility do you feel this person has to you to spend money to validate this in the specific way you would prefer?

> Not really, when you do CD releases you have a "gold master"

This is an oversimplification. In the late 90s / early 00s when 3D APIs were more fragmented than they are today, many games had different releases built to support different GPUs. There's also versions distributed with hardware that include checks that the PC contains the specific hardware.

MC2 had separate NA and EU releases, there is at least the chance of multiple versions from internationalization.

Re: Rockstar is selling cracked game copies on Steam

#246

Post by pengaru »

incrudible wrote: post #235
pengaru wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're taking what I said to mean a very pedantic definition of "reproducible builds" that even Linux distros largely only aspire to achieve. By reproducible I meant they can recreate their binaries from source code, not necessarily bit-for-bit. There's zero reason to ship a Warez group's cracked version of a game when you're the copyright holder in possession of the source and ability to simply build an executable w…

> a very pedantic definition of "reproducible builds" That's not a pedantic definition, that is the definition. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reproducible_builds > simply build an executable One does not "simply" build an executable of a ten year old game codebase on a modern system. Of course it might be worth putting the build system - by which I literally mean the hardware and software - in storage. Realistically…

> That's not a pedantic definition, that is the definition.

Right, of the term I quoted when saying you're pedantically applying the definition of a phrase I didn't even use.

I had originally said reproducible binaries, which meant to say they have the source, and can modify + recompile the damn thing. "Reproducible builds" is an industry term with a specific meaning, and I didn't say that.

Re: Rockstar is selling cracked game copies on Steam

#247

Post by bombcar »

freejazz wrote: post #243
bombcar wrote: post #242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It won't happen, as factual details can't be copyrighted. So I can't write a story with HP characters, but I can't be copyright struck for writing that there is a book called Harry Potter that has these characteristics. (The above is in the USA, other countries have different policies and rights.)

Harry Potter isn't a fact. A book about the fact that Harry Potter was written and it's about wizards is about as long as that sentence.

There are at least four books so far in the "unofficial" series, and if you believe that the companies involved wouldn't copyright strike it if they could, that's protected by the first amendment.

https://www.mugglenet.com/site/publications/

You can also find unofficial and unauthorized books in other settings, such as Minecraft, but you can argue that it's explicitly permitted as seen here: https://www.minecraft.net/en-us/article/commercial-use-guide... - but you can ignore those in the USA in many cases - here's one already: https://www.amazon.com/Minecraft-Monarchies-UnOfficial-Story...

Re: Rockstar is selling cracked game copies on Steam

#248

Post by bravetraveler »

sznio wrote: post #230
bravetraveler wrote: post #213

Does this mean, then, that their integration to Steamworks or whatever client-ensuring integration... is missing? One could presumably then archive the directory and go DRM-free

> One could presumably then archive the directory and go DRM-free Bypassing Steam DRM requires just replacing a single DLL in the game directory. There's even whole full-featured Steam Emulator DLLs that you just drop in and get to play the game for free with working online play over Valve's servers.

Interesting, didn't realize it was quite so simple :)

I was thinking that since the binary seems largely unchanged... that the presence of DLLs and such wouldn't really matter.

The cracked version wasn't aware of Steam, so I wonder if it's even checking

Re: Rockstar is selling cracked game copies on Steam

#249

Post by freejazz »

bombcar wrote: post #247
freejazz wrote: post #243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Harry Potter isn't a fact. A book about the fact that Harry Potter was written and it's about wizards is about as long as that sentence.

There are at least four books so far in the "unofficial" series, and if you believe that the companies involved wouldn't copyright strike it if they could, that's protected by the first amendment. https://www.mugglenet.com/site/publications/ You can also find unofficial and unauthorized books in other settings, such as Minecraft, but you can argue that it's explicitly permitted as seen here: https://www.minecraft.net…

Okay, it's not "skirting incredibly close" to write those reference books, because they are in no way a substitute for the underlying fiction, which is why they would probably be considered a fair use.

>There are at least four books so far in the "unofficial" series, and if you believe that the companies involved wouldn't copyright strike it if they could, that's protected by the first amendment.

You have no idea what you are talking about. The first amendment isn't a defense to copyright infringement. transformative fair use with a de minimis copying is.

Re: Rockstar is selling cracked game copies on Steam

#250

Post by bombcar »

freejazz wrote: post #249
bombcar wrote: post #247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are at least four books so far in the "unofficial" series, and if you believe that the companies involved wouldn't copyright strike it if they could, that's protected by the first amendment. https://www.mugglenet.com/site/publications/ You can also find unofficial and unauthorized books in other settings, such as Minecraft, but you can argue that it's explicitly permitted as seen here: https://www.minecraft.net…

Okay, it's not "skirting incredibly close" to write those reference books, because they are in no way a substitute for the underlying fiction, which is why they would probably be considered a fair use. >There are at least four books so far in the "unofficial" series, and if you believe that the companies involved wouldn't copyright strike it if they could, that's protected by the first amendment. You have no idea wha…

I was saying that if you believed that the companies involved wouldn't strike these if they could, that belief is covered by the first amendment freedom of religion.
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