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Guy Finds StarCraft Source Code and Returns It to Blizzard

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Re: Guy Finds StarCraft Source Code and Returns It to Blizzard

#141

Post by yomly »

Dylan16807 wrote: post #131
eridius wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So it's ok to take other people's property, as long as it's "culturally important"? TBH this makes me think of the old practice of smuggling jade artifacts out of China. Hey, it's culturally important, so clearly that means it's ok for other people to take it, right?

The "out of China" part is the problem there. That's a problem that's pretty much irrelevant to a question of whether or not to distribute copies of data files. And I didn't say that cultural importance is an automatic justification. The new star wars movie also has cultural importance, but there would be large downsides to free-for-all piracy of it during its release year. Downsides that don't exist with 20 year old…

This is more like if an annotated original script of A New Hope were to find its way into the hands of a fan and s/he gave it back to Disney instead of copying it.

Re: Guy Finds StarCraft Source Code and Returns It to Blizzard

#142

Post by yomly »

infinityplus1 wrote: post #140

Many are blaming him for not releasing the source code anonymously. Do you really think he had the knowledge to do that safely? He would have already done that if he could. It's really simple, don't play with fire if you don't know how to handle it.

How would you release something anonymously? Tor?

Re: Guy Finds StarCraft Source Code and Returns It to Blizzard

#143

Post by yomly »

Dylan16807 wrote: post #116
jakebasile wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Selfish for following the law and respecting the wishes of the authors of a work? Jesus, people are really performing some mental gymnastics to justify the hypothetical theft of property in this case in order to arrive at the conclusion that the finder is somehow being selfish.

Sometimes, not most of the time but sometimes, the wishes of an author are bad for the public. In a hypothetical scenario where an author wants to destroy all traces of their work, it's a bad thing to help them. And this is about the data, and possible copyright violations, not the theft of property. Him returning the physical disk is perfectly fine. So throw out that argument. It's really very straightforward. No gy…

Brahms destroyed a whole bunch of his works out of his own insecurity that they were not good enough. Brahms is now long dead but his (that were not destroyed) works live on.

Re: Guy Finds StarCraft Source Code and Returns It to Blizzard

#144

Post by oblio »

saboot wrote: post #133
huehehue wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not too sure about "no commercial value" considering the impending release of StarCraft: Remastered

Wow, this is a very overlooked comment. I had no idea about Starcraft: Remastered. They're releasing the original game in HD. Pretty much nulls all of the 'no commercial value' arguments I see here.

It doesn't. Want to bet that "Starcraft: Remastered" has a major code overhaul? Just read their release announcement.

Even if the code was still similar to the original one, the non-HD version is given away for free...

Re: Guy Finds StarCraft Source Code and Returns It to Blizzard

#145

Post by fatman13gg »

elementalest wrote: post #98
takeda wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At that point that would be really stupid of him, since now they know who he is. Instead creating posts and teasing other people (for karma?) he should just leak it. People are saying that it would be wrong etc. For goodness sake this thing is older than half of people on HN. Everything there is outdated and piracy-wise is not much worth. Instead, preserving it to study and learn things about game development at that…

> Instead, preserving it to study and learn things about game development at that time would be far more valuable for the common good. Given the game recently went free to play and many people still play it, its not surprising blizzard are not releasing the source. If the game had been dead for 5-10 years, then sure, they should probably release the source. Its still going strong and shows no signs of stopping in the…

> For goodness sake this thing is older than half of people on HN.

> Are you saying that half of HN are younger than 19? I would have thought the average age on HN would be somewhere around 30. I would expect the average HN person was a kid or teenager when Starcraft was released.

Maybe its a metaphor? A game of 19 years old could be say of 60 or 70 human age considering how fast game iterates.

Re: Guy Finds StarCraft Source Code and Returns It to Blizzard

#146

Post by seanp2k2 »

test1235 wrote: post #137
jpgvm wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's actually pretty simple. If you find yourself in the same situation: 1. Rip disk 2. Send to archive.org 3. Mail disk to Blizzard. Blizzard will destroy this copy or at least make sure it never circulates again, by sending it to archive.org you have relieved yourself of the burden of releasing it. They may or may not choose to release it but they will at least keep it archived so that if Blizzard is to be lost the…

You'd still get in trouble for making that copy and distributing it.

you're not distributing it and I'd trust the people at the Internet Archive to keep it anonymous and Do the Right Thing.

Re: Guy Finds StarCraft Source Code and Returns It to Blizzard

#147

Post by fatman13gg »

jfoutz wrote: post #19

I would never want to go up against blizzard legal, but I have a hard time with the "trade secret" bit when the box came from eBay. The guy didn't sign a contract with blizzard. I have cds with intellectual property on them. It's not like he's copying it all willy nilly. No different than finding a manual of procedures for some random organization. The only "real" risk seems to be possessing stolen property (maybe, c…

That's the beauty of the legal system. The point is not that you are not breaking any laws. It's the process will exhaust you and force you to sign a deal or something. You always lose in this case.

Re: Guy Finds StarCraft Source Code and Returns It to Blizzard

#148

Post by rejschaap »

jpgvm wrote: post #54
huehehue wrote: post #46

Damn people are tearing this guy apart, the reddit threads are particularly brutal. It's a video game. The finder has no obligation to risk legal trouble so that a game can be modified, played, or even preserved. I'm all for archiving these sorts of things, and agree there's probably no great reason to keep the source private. But if I have the (likely) stolen property of a large company and they ask for its return,…

It's actually pretty simple. If you find yourself in the same situation: 1. Rip disk 2. Send to archive.org 3. Mail disk to Blizzard. Blizzard will destroy this copy or at least make sure it never circulates again, by sending it to archive.org you have relieved yourself of the burden of releasing it. They may or may not choose to release it but they will at least keep it archived so that if Blizzard is to be lost the…

I would replace step 3 with framing it nicely and hiding it in in a corner in my attic. A couple centuries from now it will end up in a pawn shop somewhere

Re: Guy Finds StarCraft Source Code and Returns It to Blizzard

#149

Post by rawland »

jakebasile wrote: post #44

It looks like someone found a copy of Blizzard's copyrighted source code, returned it to Blizzard, and got a reward. Why are people upset about this? It seems like the right thing to do to my mind. If someone found a copy of my own source laying in the street I'd be very happy if they returned it instead of releasing it on the net.

Completely agree.

Unless an owner of code decides something should run as FOOS, it's basically their own.

As far as I remember, the StarCraft game is already free (which is pretty awesome) [1]. So, maybe it's a matter of time until the source code might be free, too. However, it's up to them.

For the truly curious (which are arguing about the cultural value and so on), it is still possible to look into it using a decompiler. It is messy, but it is possible.

[1]: https://starcraft.com/en-us/articles/20674424

Re: Guy Finds StarCraft Source Code and Returns It to Blizzard

#150

Post by antihero »

jakebasile wrote: post #52
jpgvm wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not normal source code. It's not like you found the source to the latest Halo game or something. This is like finding the source to the original Halo game, of little to no commercial value but of immense cultural value. Where possible these artefacts are archived so they will be around long after the companies have folded. Unfortunately it's just not possible most of the time as companies end up taking their sof…

But in this case, that's Blizzard's right. They own it whether you like it or not. Just because something is important doesn't mean they should lose property rights to it. Abandonware is a thing and I remember there being some legal headway made recently in that respect, but Starcraft isn't abandoned. They just released a compatibility patch and made it free to download.

> that's Blizzard's right

Sure, legally. But the question is whether we care. Ethics are relative.

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