121–130 of 259 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Cracking was a 90s term for pirating software
Cracking is about removing anti-features, typically copy protections. It pairs well with pirating, but neither one strictly requires the other.
Anti what features? Piracy?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
A No-CD crack might not be transformative enough to warrant copyright protection as derivative work in the US. But they could sue in a jurisdiction that is more likely to give them a favorable outcome. Handling of derivative works and the minimum threshold for copyright varies considerably between countries.
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…
A maybe more clear example is music. Songwriting is covered by copywrite. Singing is also covered by copywrite. If A writes a song and B sings the song without A:s premission it can be copyright infringment. However, A can not take a recording of B:s song and copy and sell it without B:s consent because B has the copyright to the performance (even if the performance was a copywright infringment).
Rockstar owns the copyright, they can do whatever they want with their games. It is rather odd however, and paints Rockstar in a very negative light as a trustworthy purveyor of binary distributed software. Do you want to receive l33t warez when paying for software? I expect reproducible binaries produced by a controlled toolchain from a responsible developer. Linux distributions have higher standards for binaries th…
I would estimate the number of videogames published for Windows PCs matching all of these critera to be roughly 0.
Related story, I remember years ago as a kid I bought a Prince of Persia PC game at a yardsale (on a CD), but early on in the game there was a riddle where you needed a password to get through this door, it was some cryptic message of a few numbers. I don't remember the exact format but it turned out the riddle was instructing me to go to page X, line Y and character Z of the manual for the game! I remember being so…
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"
https://www.vice.com/en/article/88gqjz/anne-rice-really-hate...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
There is the matter of enforcement, however. If something is completely unenforceable, such as in this case where the owner is using a pirate groups bypass, then it may as well be permissible. It's not expressly permissible, but the perceived breach is also not enforceable, so the argument becomes a moot point. Also, the patches typically had no license terms attached to their usage, or if they did it came in the for…
I'm pretty sure that the lack of license terms doesn't make it a free-for-all, instead it means that there is no possible licensed use at all. If you pick up a copy of Photoshop and can't find the license for it, you don't get to go down to the street corner and sell bootleg copies. That defense won't hold when you're in district court fighting to stay out of federal prison, anyway. And while it's true that this will…
So even if there was a no commercial use license somehow, it feels kinda like jury nullification where it's not explicitly legal, but de facto legal because of structure of the rest of the judicial system.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
He knows what cracked means. I think you misunderstood.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Does RAZOR1911 have a legal way to have a share of revenue since they are using his hard work?
Razor1911 is a cracking group from the mid 80s on... but it would be fantastic wouldn't it? :)