Earlier quoted context omitted.
"It is straightforwardly illegal to decompile source code, recompile it, and the distribute the recompiled binary." According to what? If the rules are so poorly defined that way then maybe it's not a bad thing to disregard them. Because simply decompiling source code and then recompiling it isn't a simple one-step thing in the way you suggest, not even close.
It's the distribution step that's illegal, since you don't own the original binary. If you can't distribute the original binary, why can you distribute a modified version of it? If you wrote a bash script which decompiled and recompiled the original binary, that would be your property to distribute as you like
A Grand Theft Auto III Re-Implementation
121–130 of 134 posts
Re: A Grand Theft Auto III Re-Implementation
#122Earlier quoted context omitted.
Openmw is a clean room implementation. Bethesda could throw a legal fit regardless but it would be indefensible for them to do so.
Clean rooms protect from patent issues, but do little to protect against copyright or trademark actions. The fact that one creates totally new code from scratch means nothing if the end product is too similar to the existing copyrighted work.
Copyright infringement requires copying.
Patent infringement does not require copying.
There's a famous case on this exact issue.
Atari Games Corp. v. Nintendo of America Inc. 975 F.2d 832 (Fed. Cir. 1992)
"Nintendo can show copying by proving that Atari made literal copies of the NES program. Alternatively, Nintendo can show copying by proving that Atari had access to the NES program and that Atari's work — the Rabbit program — is substantially similar to Nintendo's work in ideas and the expression of those ideas."
Re: A Grand Theft Auto III Re-Implementation
#123Earlier quoted context omitted.
"It is straightforwardly illegal to decompile source code, recompile it, and the distribute the recompiled binary." According to what? If the rules are so poorly defined that way then maybe it's not a bad thing to disregard them. Because simply decompiling source code and then recompiling it isn't a simple one-step thing in the way you suggest, not even close.
Next you will suggest that stealing original artwork and laundering copyright through generative art ML systems is not illegal...
Re: A Grand Theft Auto III Re-Implementation
#124Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think the GTA 3 family of GTA games did, yes. They were PlayStation 2 games first, and RenderWare was relatively common for PS2 games. Source: worked in game dev using RenderWare on PS2 back then
Since you were in the industry, was RW the first big 3rd party engine? I know it’s common now, and seems to have really taken off in the Wii/PS3/360 era. My understanding is it wasn’t in the PSX generation (at least early?).
It must have started off as a purely software renderer as I can remember trying to compete with their published stats on tris/sec.
Re: A Grand Theft Auto III Re-Implementation
#125Earlier quoted context omitted.
It wasn’t for a while, they released a “definitive edition” which is available. They took the old versions down somewhat prematurely before releasing the remasters. A small number of people got some attention being disproportionally upset about this.
This minimizes things a bit. The definitive editions got torn apart for being ugly and poorly developed. It was a better experience to use the originals and mod them in many cases. This original version is still not available and people are still upset about it. Looks like the DE version of GTAIII currently has a 6 out of 10 on steam so it probably hasn’t been improved since release.
https://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/3ylmm4/comment/cyet...
Re: A Grand Theft Auto III Re-Implementation
#126Earlier quoted context omitted.
Is this a fork of cgit? Do you have the source? It's lovely :) Edit: I see, it's just some CSS. New question: Is it FOSS?
Yep, just some CSS. I have not cleaned it up for release or anything, so it's a bit messy, but feel free to use it under the licence terms of cgit (GPLv2.0-only) and if you don't mind, put an attribution somewhere, like at least at the top of the CSS file. EDIT: You will also need this in your , otherwise you won't have a mobile-friendly layout: And also a custom pygments config so it uses the correct variables for c…
Re: A Grand Theft Auto III Re-Implementation
#127Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's the distribution step that's illegal, since you don't own the original binary. If you can't distribute the original binary, why can you distribute a modified version of it? If you wrote a bash script which decompiled and recompiled the original binary, that would be your property to distribute as you like
Decompilation is also illegal in broken countries (which is most of them)
Re: A Grand Theft Auto III Re-Implementation
#128Earlier quoted context omitted.
Clean rooms protect from patent issues, but do little to protect against copyright or trademark actions. The fact that one creates totally new code from scratch means nothing if the end product is too similar to the existing copyrighted work.
That's literally the exact opposite of reality: > Clean-room design is useful as a defense against copyright infringement because it relies on independent creation. However, because independent invention is not a defense against patents, clean-room designs typically cannot be used to circumvent patent restrictions. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clean_room_design
Re: A Grand Theft Auto III Re-Implementation
#129Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's literally the exact opposite of reality: > Clean-room design is useful as a defense against copyright infringement because it relies on independent creation. However, because independent invention is not a defense against patents, clean-room designs typically cannot be used to circumvent patent restrictions. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clean_room_design
In code, not end product. You can reverse engineer code all day, but your end product better not end up looking identical to the protected work. I could set a thousand AI machines in a clean room generating new song lyrics. Eventually one of them will randomly come up with identical lyrics to a Taylor Swift song. That doesn't mean I now own those lyrics free and clear. "Technically, I didn't copy " isn't a defense wh…
A clean room is NEVER a possible defense for patents and it is sometimes a possible defense for copyright.
Re: A Grand Theft Auto III Re-Implementation
#130Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's literally the exact opposite of reality: > Clean-room design is useful as a defense against copyright infringement because it relies on independent creation. However, because independent invention is not a defense against patents, clean-room designs typically cannot be used to circumvent patent restrictions. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clean_room_design
In code, not end product. You can reverse engineer code all day, but your end product better not end up looking identical to the protected work. I could set a thousand AI machines in a clean room generating new song lyrics. Eventually one of them will randomly come up with identical lyrics to a Taylor Swift song. That doesn't mean I now own those lyrics free and clear. "Technically, I didn't copy " isn't a defense wh…
You may be able to patent the functionality of a piece of software.
The point of the clean room practice is to avoid a literal line for line copy of the original software. It would be entirely legal to say, write a song from the perspective of Taylor Swift about her feeling sad and betrayed after a breakup.
But analogies are dicey because the law treats functional software differently from literary expression.
Precedent here is vTech reimplementing the Apple II BIOS and Phoenix reimplementing the IBM BIOS and Connectix selling a PlayStation emulator for a fraction of the price of a PlayStation.