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Comment by bendbro

7 years ago

I wonder if this will impact game archival efforts. Companies may be less likely to permit release of old source (or more likely to take action against those who do release source) knowing legal issues like this may be inside. Is there a statute of limitations here? Could the owner the violated code sue? What happens it they succeed, monetary compensation?

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bendbro

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thristian  7 years ago

"will"? This is why game archival efforts are difficult. Companies already know that this kind of thing goes on, and that's why so few games (or commercial software of any kind) get their sources released.

autoexec  7 years ago

> I wonder if this will impact game archival efforts.

Just one more area where piracy has our backs.

  • dev_dull  7 years ago

    How does piracy aid in convincing companies to release the source code for games?

    • simcop2387  7 years ago

      It doesn't help in convincing them to release things, but the cracks and other things that the pirates develop help the archival purposes. Because a number of the DRM and other anti-piracy stuff that's bundled, once a company goes out of business it's nearly impossible to run some of these games if they had to call home to verify the copy of the game. People removing these checks helps preserve the game for future use once the company is no more.

      For a great example of this, take a look at City Of Heroes, and MMORPG that's had a relatively recent revival after someone, somehow getting a hold of the data/code for the server and managing to get it running again. https://www.pcgamer.com/a-fully-functioning-city-of-heroes-p...

      The company itself went out of business back in 2012, and otherwise the game itself was just gone.

    • autoexec  7 years ago

      Problems with licensing can make it impossible to sell an artistic work. Even when it may be possible, it can easily be considered too costly in terms of time, money, and/or effort to be worth it to the company currently holding the copyright. In either case an artistic work and a piece of our culture is locked away forever from anyone who isn't interested in breaking the law.

      Even in a case like this where copies of a game were already released eventually the existing CDs will all be lost, degraded, broken, or unusable. Piracy solves this problem by maintaining playable copies and making them available so a creative work can delight, offend, and inspire indefinitely.

      In cases where a released work has to be modified to be legal to sell again and a company is willing to make the effort piracy can preserve the work exactly as the artists originally intended. Pirates can do the same in situations where changes are made for other reasons and only the modified works are officially made available. For a great example of that look at the incredible work fans did to restore the original Star Wars.