The curious case of retro demo scene graphics

Post by ebiester » Mon, Mar 30, 2026, 2:34 PM UTC

embedding-shape wrote: post #68

GuB-42 wrote: post #59

> Theft from the outside world, however, is often taken lightly - especially when it comes to graphics. One should not forget where the demoscene is coming from: crackers. The whole point of "intros" was to show off the skills of whoever cracked a piece of software. So obviously, the views demoscene held on intellectual property are not mainstream, if we can say it like that. The shift to a more creative and law abid…

I think very initially it was indeed so, crackers were the ones doing the intros. But very quickly the efforts got split, most of the time, the person doing the intro was a different person, the person doing the music was another person and finally another person was the one doing the actual crack. I don't think it took very long for this split to be the norm, even though very early I'm sure there was individuals doi…

Post by embedding-shape » Mon, Mar 30, 2026, 3:13 PM UTC

ebiester wrote: post #71

embedding-shape wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think very initially it was indeed so, crackers were the ones doing the intros. But very quickly the efforts got split, most of the time, the person doing the intro was a different person, the person doing the music was another person and finally another person was the one doing the actual crack. I don't think it took very long for this split to be the norm, even though very early I'm sure there was individuals doi…

They were different people, but they were in the same group and knew exactly what it was being used for.

Post by danparsonson » Mon, Mar 30, 2026, 3:27 PM UTC

Asooka wrote: post #53

parasti wrote: post #10

Focusing on "copying" seems like missing the forest for the trees. There's the copyright angle, but copyright laws are unnatural obstacles designed to give the original author some control over what happens after publishing. They're not fundamental, we made the laws. What is fundamental is this: every artist starts out by copying the works of others. It's how you learn. And in that framing, once you publish your deri…

This sounds so insane to me. If I own land and grow a tree on it, the tree and its fruits are private property forever (mine until I die, then inherited by my children, then their children, or sold, transferred, etc ad nauseam). At no point does the tree become "public", that would be utter nonsense. It is property. Why should my ideas then be anything different? They come from my head. I own myself, including my hea…

Post by taeric » Mon, Mar 30, 2026, 3:35 PM UTC

Post by Jare » Mon, Mar 30, 2026, 4:49 PM UTC

GuB-42 wrote: post #59

> Theft from the outside world, however, is often taken lightly - especially when it comes to graphics. One should not forget where the demoscene is coming from: crackers. The whole point of "intros" was to show off the skills of whoever cracked a piece of software. So obviously, the views demoscene held on intellectual property are not mainstream, if we can say it like that. The shift to a more creative and law abid…