Comments on: Reverse Engineering: Evil or Enlightening? Hes caused less damage than the lawsuits are gonna cost anyway. Hes caused less damage than the lawsuits are gonna cost anyway.

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By: Ben/2011/04/07/reverse-engineering-evil-or-enlightening/#comment-2518 Ben Sat, 09 Apr 2011 12:41:52 +0000 Yes this is precisely my point, Sony does not tell how much damage, if any, Geohot has caused and yet this madness continues. I really doubt he has done anything significant to the company. Yes this is precisely my point, Sony does not tell how much damage, if any, Geohot has caused and yet this madness continues. I really doubt he has done anything significant to the company.

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By: BobV/2011/04/07/reverse-engineering-evil-or-enlightening/#comment-2491 BobV Fri, 08 Apr 2011 22:36:10 +0000

Why shouldn’t fans be able to make spin offs of games no longer in production if said companies are just sitting on the “IP”? I believe if you are a company and you are not actively exploiting your “IP” it should naturally fall into the public domain or fall into the hands of fans, sourcecode, art, etc. Since I do not believe in the “liscensing model” for games.

Game industry wants to be a ‘IP’ industry but wants the benefits of a manufactured goods based industry where customer owns the things he buys.

The fact that most of the public isn’t intelligent enough to know their rights and resist is why corporations and businesses run roughshod over the public domain.

Piracy and cracking games is merely compensation for businesses getting rid of public domain and trying to enclose ideas from being used and innovated on by others.

I believe copyright on the whole actually reduces innovation because there are many fans out there that have the skills to work on games and mod them over the long term after a company has long since abandoned it.

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By: Joe Hegarty/2011/04/07/reverse-engineering-evil-or-enlightening/#comment-2481 Joe Hegarty Fri, 08 Apr 2011 18:57:25 +0000 [...] Since publication this has been republished at Gamasutra and AltDevBlogADay. [...] [...] Since publication this has been republished at Gamasutra and AltDevBlogADay. [...]

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By: Kristine/2011/04/07/reverse-engineering-evil-or-enlightening/#comment-2478 Kristine Fri, 08 Apr 2011 15:12:03 +0000 Since I can not edit my comment (it would be really nice though) I reply to myself :) I think that the idea of reverse engineering is fine by itself, just be careful not to hurt anyone. Reverse engineering something makes you better at what you do so there is nothing wrong with it as long as the consequences are not fatal. Since I can not edit my comment (it would be really nice though) I reply to myself :)

I think that the idea of reverse engineering is fine by itself, just be careful not to hurt anyone. Reverse engineering something makes you better at what you do so there is nothing wrong with it as long as the consequences are not fatal.

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By: Viktor/2011/04/07/reverse-engineering-evil-or-enlightening/#comment-2469 Viktor Fri, 08 Apr 2011 08:08:32 +0000 Cracking probably (I don't have any EULAs to check at the moment) is illegal but since business practices are always oriented to efficient illegal activity prevention, I think it's not because cracking is wrong <em>per se</em> but because it can turn out to be wrong. If someone gets his hands on that carefully hidden executable file someone else has spent weeks to make only for himself, the situation could easily get out of hand and cost a lot of money for the developers as well as publishers. In practice, however, it is funny how this changes nothing in the availability of cracked executables. P.S. I wonder if it is illegal to emulate the data server (to bypass the latest Ubisoft's copy protection system)... :D Cracking probably (I don’t have any EULAs to check at the moment) is illegal but since business practices are always oriented to efficient illegal activity prevention, I think it’s not because cracking is wrong per se but because it can turn out to be wrong. If someone gets his hands on that carefully hidden executable file someone else has spent weeks to make only for himself, the situation could easily get out of hand and cost a lot of money for the developers as well as publishers.

In practice, however, it is funny how this changes nothing in the availability of cracked executables.

P.S. I wonder if it is illegal to emulate the data server (to bypass the latest Ubisoft’s copy protection system)… :D

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By: Erwin Coumans/2011/04/07/reverse-engineering-evil-or-enlightening/#comment-2453 Erwin Coumans Thu, 07 Apr 2011 19:45:55 +0000 I agree, I'm not sure it can be evil if you don't share your discoveries or make money from them. However, the case of cracking a game because you don't want the DRM is the interesting grey area here, I believe that's actually illegal but if you own the game is it morally wrong as well? I agree, I’m not sure it can be evil if you don’t share your discoveries or make money from them. However, the case of cracking a game because you don’t want the DRM is the interesting grey area here, I believe that’s actually illegal but if you own the game is it morally wrong as well?

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By: snake5/2011/04/07/reverse-engineering-evil-or-enlightening/#comment-2445 snake5 Thu, 07 Apr 2011 18:57:42 +0000 In business, there's no one to blame, there's just demand. If people think the price is not worth it (and if they have already paid for the console - thus you can't discard their opinion as that of thieves), they're probably right. So they demand cheaper entertainment. And there will always be someone who's going to give it to them. As for reverse engineering - it's just fun. I believe that's the reason why people do it. If they wanted to get money, you would never know who did it until someone would find and sue them. A good example is the "Kudos" group that worked with PS1 games. They compiled several games into one disc, took out cutscenes if they had to do it and took or made Russian translations for those games. The price was the same for all CDs (not games!) because the amount content was the same - the CDs were full. Everyone was able to buy those games "on the streets" and no information was available on the internet. Places changed but the authors don't seem to be caught, tried or even known. Google can't give any kind of information either. That's how one works if he wants to earn money that way. P.S. If you need someone/something to blame - you can blame schools. They teach people how the right to copy is protected, why that kind of protection is wrong and how they succeed if they successfully copy something. Same thing goes with most of the rights that teachers "control". :D In business, there’s no one to blame, there’s just demand. If people think the price is not worth it (and if they have already paid for the console – thus you can’t discard their opinion as that of thieves), they’re probably right. So they demand cheaper entertainment. And there will always be someone who’s going to give it to them.

As for reverse engineering – it’s just fun. I believe that’s the reason why people do it. If they wanted to get money, you would never know who did it until someone would find and sue them.

A good example is the “Kudos” group that worked with PS1 games. They compiled several games into one disc, took out cutscenes if they had to do it and took or made Russian translations for those games. The price was the same for all CDs (not games!) because the amount content was the same – the CDs were full. Everyone was able to buy those games “on the streets” and no information was available on the internet. Places changed but the authors don’t seem to be caught, tried or even known. Google can’t give any kind of information either. That’s how one works if he wants to earn money that way.

P.S. If you need someone/something to blame – you can blame schools. They teach people how the right to copy is protected, why that kind of protection is wrong and how they succeed if they successfully copy something. Same thing goes with most of the rights that teachers “control”. :D

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