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> Look at the recent build of Super Mario 64 for the PC That build was made with either stolen source code or code decompiled and distributed without without a
by bdowling 6y ago
> Look at the recent build of Super Mario 64 for the PC
That build was made with either stolen source code or code decompiled and distributed without without a license from Nintendo. It is not comparable to an intentional source code release by the owner under some copyright license.
- pathartl 6y agoIt's decompiled and reassembled code and completely legal. The port binary that is floating around is not legal because of embedded assets. Sure it's not the same as intentional source code releases, but it's still a code base that is going to be passed around from platform to platform.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- bdowling 6y ago> It's decompiled and reassembled code and completely legal. If it’s created by disassembling Nintendo’s code, then it is derived from that code and it infringes Nintendo’s copyright.
- pathartl 6y agoNot necessarily https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decompiler#Legality https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decompiler#Legality
- bdowling 6y agoAccording to your link the situations in which decompilation is legal are extremely limited. For example, under EU law, (1) "a person or entity must have a licence to use the program to be decompiled" and (2) "Article 6 prescribes that the information obtained through decompilation may not be used for other purposes and that it may not be given to others." Anyway, I'm not saying that the Super Mario 64 decompiled code project isn't cool, because it is. It just probably infringes Nintendo's copyrights in the code, not just in the assets like levels, graphics, and music.