Yeah, that’s why all the IBM clones had to write their BIOS firmware in clean room implementations of new software that implemented the same functionality as IBM’s own documentation described.
Functionality can’t be copyrighted, but code can be. So the easiest way to prove that you made something without the copyrighted code is to mimic the functionality through your own implementation, not by transforming the existing copyrighted code, through decompilation or anything like that.
Some people struggle with the difference between arguing about descriptive statements, about what things are, and arguing about normative statements, about what things should be. And these topics are nuanced.
Decompiling to learn functionality is fair use (because like I said in my previous comment, functionality can’t be copyrighted), but actually using and redistributing code (whether the original source code, the compiled binary derived from the source code, or decompiled code derived from the binary) is pretty risky from a legal standpoint. I’d advise against trying to build a business around the practice.
Decompiling doesn’t give you the code like you’d expect.
It gives you the instructions the code generates.
There’s a Lego island decomp documentary on YouTube that is recomend for more details.
But the actual source code used doesn’t get piped out. Instead you get the machine instructions and you make code that generates the same instructions.
Meaning your still writing the game yourself, meaning you own the copyright
No one says that the actual source code (C or whatever) is “piped out”. The machine instructions (in form of a binary) you have before decompiling is the code that is executed by the machine/emulator is copyrighted like any other data on the disc/cartridge. You are not writing the game yourself if you are decompiling it. And it’s logically a derivative work. The fact that the resulting “instructions” is not the source code that developers wrote is as expected. It won’t create it from thin air.
I don’t understand what kind of mental gymnastics you need to do to think that you are doing something original here.
Fair use means legally using a copyrighted material without requiring permission of the copyright holder. It does not mean you can redistribute in general, though some forms of redistribution are fair use, such as using an excerpt from a book in your essay.
Reverse engineering code is also fair use, but that doesn’t mean it’s fair use to share the code you’ve reversed.
Yeah but Nintendo doesn’t always seem to give a shit just because something is legal. They’ll still play the “but our legal department has more money than YOU” card
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Decomps are legal because no copyrighted material is being distributed. They typically require the original ROM to run (eg for assets).
The code itself is also copyrighted. Decompiled code is a derivative work.
Yeah, that’s why all the IBM clones had to write their BIOS firmware in clean room implementations of new software that implemented the same functionality as IBM’s own documentation described.
Functionality can’t be copyrighted, but code can be. So the easiest way to prove that you made something without the copyrighted code is to mimic the functionality through your own implementation, not by transforming the existing copyrighted code, through decompilation or anything like that.
Exactly. But somehow I got downvoted heavily for saying the obvious.
Some people struggle with the difference between arguing about descriptive statements, about what things are, and arguing about normative statements, about what things should be. And these topics are nuanced.
Decompiling to learn functionality is fair use (because like I said in my previous comment, functionality can’t be copyrighted), but actually using and redistributing code (whether the original source code, the compiled binary derived from the source code, or decompiled code derived from the binary) is pretty risky from a legal standpoint. I’d advise against trying to build a business around the practice.
Decompiling doesn’t give you the code like you’d expect.
It gives you the instructions the code generates.
There’s a Lego island decomp documentary on YouTube that is recomend for more details.
But the actual source code used doesn’t get piped out. Instead you get the machine instructions and you make code that generates the same instructions.
Meaning your still writing the game yourself, meaning you own the copyright
No one says that the actual source code (C or whatever) is “piped out”. The machine instructions (in form of a binary) you have before decompiling is the code that is executed by the machine/emulator is copyrighted like any other data on the disc/cartridge. You are not writing the game yourself if you are decompiling it. And it’s logically a derivative work. The fact that the resulting “instructions” is not the source code that developers wrote is as expected. It won’t create it from thin air.
I don’t understand what kind of mental gymnastics you need to do to think that you are doing something original here.
I’m wrong about why,
But it’s been ruled as fair use
That says reverse engineering is ok – not sharing RE’d code.
AFAIK fair use means you can redistribute.
Fair use means legally using a copyrighted material without requiring permission of the copyright holder. It does not mean you can redistribute in general, though some forms of redistribution are fair use, such as using an excerpt from a book in your essay.
Reverse engineering code is also fair use, but that doesn’t mean it’s fair use to share the code you’ve reversed.
Yeah but Nintendo doesn’t always seem to give a shit just because something is legal. They’ll still play the “but our legal department has more money than YOU” card