Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

GTA 5 source code leaks online

sportskeeda.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

221–230 of 271 posts

Re: GTA 5 source code leaks online

#221

Post by mholm »

worik wrote: post #216
nottorp wrote: post #152

I don’t see how the source code of a game being public is a problem; the game will be as enjoyable (or as crap) with or without the source code public. Oh wait, Rockstar are going the multiplayer plus gacha route. A leak may hurt because the players may not need the gacha. For single player games, I see no problem. And for those hoping more games release source code, I don’t think the source for commercial games is i…

What is "gotcha route"?

'gacha' refers to 'gachapon' in japanese, originally referring to lottery elements in mobile games (typically asian), now referring to exploitive microtransactions and addictive elements in all forms of gaming. Loot boxes are a common gacha element. The poster is implying that GTAV is exploitive.

Re: GTA 5 source code leaks online

#222

Post by fnordpiglet »

ndriscoll wrote: post #213
fnordpiglet wrote: post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The key difference is you are licensed and entitled to read the Linux source code. GTA 5 hasn’t been licensed to you and you are absolutely not entitled to read it, even if you managed to get hold of it due to a theft. By reading it as an app developer you taint your knowledge with stolen intellectual property and stolen trade secrets, potentially exposing yourself and any game you work on (including for an employer)…

If developers became tainted by knowledge of proprietary/secret code, wouldn't you be bound for life to your first employer? And wouldn't reading GPL code like Linux also taint your mind for life? What if a coworker or some random FOSS author read the code and later used a technique they saw, and then you see it and your mind is now tainted too? Sounds like a nonsense "risk".

You actually are bound to not disclosure their trade secrets. Trade knowledge isn’t a trade secret, but there are aspects of their code they may consider “secret sauce,” which if you took and implemented at a competitor you better believe they will come after your employer for. I’ve seen it many times in my career over the last 30 years. Be careful, it’s absolutely not nonsense and you personally are potentially implicated.

Re: GTA 5 source code leaks online

#223

Post by fnordpiglet »

tarruda wrote: post #214
fnordpiglet wrote: post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The key difference is you are licensed and entitled to read the Linux source code. GTA 5 hasn’t been licensed to you and you are absolutely not entitled to read it, even if you managed to get hold of it due to a theft. By reading it as an app developer you taint your knowledge with stolen intellectual property and stolen trade secrets, potentially exposing yourself and any game you work on (including for an employer)…

Is the risk any different than that if a programmer who used to work for Rockstar games? Aren't former employees allowed to learn from their experience working on GTA V and develop products based on that knowledge, just as Rockstar programmers have used prior knowledge to develop GTA V?

The key is trade secrets. There are aspects that are common trade skills that are transferable, but some things are considered secrets in their novelty and competitive advantage. You absolutely can not disclose those to subsequent employers.

Usually though it’s really hard to establish this unless you were a key person behind some key technology. But it’s very common in high finance (high end hedge funds, etc) that they go after people for bringing some algorithm or technique to a competitor.

But there is a huge difference between knowledge gained in employment, which is protected by employment law and common sense, and knowledge gained in the furtherance of a crime. Copying, distributing, studying, and replicating trade secrets from stolen source code is ABSOLUTELY not protected under any squinting at the law.

Re: GTA 5 source code leaks online

#224

Post by fnordpiglet »

worik wrote: post #211
fnordpiglet wrote: post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The key difference is you are licensed and entitled to read the Linux source code. GTA 5 hasn’t been licensed to you and you are absolutely not entitled to read it, even if you managed to get hold of it due to a theft. By reading it as an app developer you taint your knowledge with stolen intellectual property and stolen trade secrets, potentially exposing yourself and any game you work on (including for an employer)…

> By reading it as an app developer you taint your knowledge with stolen intellectual property and stolen trade secrets, potentially exposing yourself and any game you work on (including for an employer) to criminal and civil penalties. Yes How stupid. What a stupid waste Got to love capitalism

That’s why I’m a big fan of free software (in the FSF sense). But being a fan also means I’m aware of the consequences we face in our current structure. I’m worried reading these posts most people don’t realize the grave danger they could be in.

Re: GTA 5 source code leaks online

#225

Post by deaddodo »

Aurornis wrote: post #204
deaddodo wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well there's two arguments to be made. They 100% gave him the source code in a grab bag of goodies. That's a pretty simple case of he has a right to the disc itself, so he could have just kept it (or resold it) and not published. Them giving him "stuff" was them "buying" the item back, not just them being nice (as you put it). There's also an argument to be made that the code itself does not infringe on their IP, as…

> There's also an argument to be made that the code itself does not infringe on their IP, That’s not how IP works. Blizzard didn’t forfeit their rights to the IP at any point. Even selling them a grab bag of stuff that unintentionally included a copy of the source code doesn’t mean the recipient actually received a legal license to the IP. You can make all the arguments you want, but in the court of law you’re not go…

Sure, the recipient doesn't have the right to call it their own or commercially distribute/benefit from it. I didn't make a claim otherwise.

I said the code they have does not infringe on the commercially released product called StarCraft as it is not a portion thereof. I even stated that releasing it or otherwise making it available is tenuous at best. So I'm not even sure what you're arguing.

> “Finders keepers” doesn’t work with IP.

He didn't "find" it, they willingly transferred it to him along with a bunch of other things they randomly grabbed from their warehouse.

Re: GTA 5 source code leaks online

#226

Post by harry8 »

timschmidt wrote: post #28
vegetablepotpie wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you want to make new works that are not GPLd, not GPLing the building blocks would let you do that. Alternatively, you could LGPL the building blocks, still allow the end products to not need to be GPLd, but require development on the building blocks to be open sourced.

GPL + a copyright assignment agreement also works (because the copyright holder can issue any sort of license he pleases in addition to GPL)

Sven doesn’t care about contributing his changes back to your tree and does not assign you copyright. GPL is fine for Sven. Ingrid can use Sven’s GPL changes because she’ll use that license too. You want to dual licence, you can’t use Sven or Ingrid code.

Copyright assignment + gpl so you can charge for a different licence too only works if nobody wants to fork. Doubt that’s the case for this sort of thing.

Re: GTA 5 source code leaks online

#228

Post by nottorp »

mholm wrote: post #221
worik wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is "gotcha route"?

'gacha' refers to 'gachapon' in japanese, originally referring to lottery elements in mobile games (typically asian), now referring to exploitive microtransactions and addictive elements in all forms of gaming. Loot boxes are a common gacha element. The poster is implying that GTAV is exploitive.

The multiplayer is. And the startup screen tries VERY HARD to push you into the multiplayer. And god help you if you start the multiplayer even once.

Re: GTA 5 source code leaks online

#229

Post by rzzzt »

sebazzz wrote: post #124
TheAceOfHearts wrote: post #15

For anyone that is curious, according to 4chan (i.e. take it with a mountain of salt): > Apparently there are 3 leaks in circulation: > 3.3 gigs, src only > 17 gigs, src + partial assets > 1 TB, src + full assets I really wish more games shared the source, even if it's under a restrictive license. It's just interesting to get a peak under the hood. It makes me wish that copyright lasted less time and that submitting…

> I really wish more games shared the source, even if it's under a restrictive license. It's just interesting to get a peak under the hood. Don't underestimate that software patents play a role in that. For instance, the source code release of Doom 3 had to be modified to remove a rendering technique under patent by Creative - even though John Carmack invented the technique simultaneously and independently of Creativ…

The original Doom had third-party audio playback routines, so the source came with a rewritten sound server: https://github.com/id-Software/DOOM/tree/master/sndserv

    The bad news:  this code only compiles and runs on linux.  We couldn't
    release the dos code because of a copyrighted sound library we used
    (wow, was that a mistake -- I write my own sound code now), and I
    honestly don't even know what happened to the port that microsoft did
    to windows.

Re: GTA 5 source code leaks online

#230

Post by ta988 »

Timon3 wrote: post #151
ta988 wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having an escrow in a structure like the library of congress (or the NSA, they have tons of storage /s) and they get released when company dies or the product isn't commercialised for more than x years. Or when the company decides to. Maybe it is a bit more complicated with assets rights, that's what a couple game devs told me.

I wonder if there's a way to implement this without storing the code with a central authority, e.g. by encrypting the code so that it can only be decrypted in X years. You'd probably still have to have a central authority involved to ensure people can't just fast-forward - but a system similar to TOTP codes could be a neat mechanism!

I don't think we have any way to do that. Time is abstract for algorithms. Unless you make something you know you couldn't solve in less than x years. But that assumes you can predict improvements in algorithms and computing power over a long period which could be tricky to get precisely.
Post reply on HN