Rockstar Sold Max Payne 2 Using Pirated Code

[daskat]

Rockstar lazy... no way. May be they kept gta III config files in Bully, it was kind of weird to see rocket launcher and minigun next to fire crackers and slingshots... Or plane stats in gta IV... well the only planes that gta Iv has are treated in the program as object and not vehicles....
Ok they are lazy coders but never pirates, they only make tributes... like in vice city, that was a tribute to miami vice and... errr... meh, never mind.

 

[Arcticflame]

Now Rockstar can't sue whenever anyone pirates any of their software. Ever again.

by your logic you cant call anyone an idiot again, because you just proved your an idiot with that logic. Mythic has nothing they can do, it is illegal code that they can not claim rights on. and Yes Rockstar can claim the code as theres, it happens all the time. You break copyright, and design something based on someone elses copyright, they get the rights of what you made. Its the law, idiot.

That isn't entirely logical.

Code is intellectual property, and while it is true that mythic would never sue over use of their code, the legal system doesn't really recognise two wrongs making a right.

If rockstar sued mythic, mythic would probably lose. If mythic counter-sued, mythic would probably lose, however it's such an odd position they have put themselves into, there is no real way of knowing exactly how the case would pan out.

Imagine if I released harry potter book one, except I added 4 paragraphs randomly somewhere. J.K. Rowling could sue me, and would certainly win, however if she then re-released the book with my 4 paragraphs included, I think I would have quite a good case to sue her back.

This is a very similar circumstance, mythic's code is their intellectual property, the code itself is not illegal, it's what it was used to do that is shady.

What the post you quoted was effectively saying was, and I agree to an extent, that if rockstar sues any game cracking groups again, they are being hipocritical, as they themselves used someone elses code, breaking IP laws.

 

[008Zulu_v1legacy]

Now Rockstar can't sue whenever anyone pirates any of their software. Ever again.

by your logic you cant call anyone an idiot again, because you just proved your an idiot with that logic. Mythic has nothing they can do, it is illegal code that they can not claim rights on. and Yes Rockstar can claim the code as theres, it happens all the time. You break copyright, and design something based on someone elses copyright, they get the rights of what you made. Its the law, idiot.

Wasn't aimed at Myth being the copyright holders of the code Rockstar used. Was aimed at Rockstar making money off pirated software. Any court will tell you circumventing copy protecting using reverse engineered code is illegal.

 

[duchaked]

guess PC gamers aren't much against pirates cracking DRMs lol...understandable

but whatever they can do what they want with their game, right? I mean, it's still their game!

 

[Pingieking]

I think they should have left it up. Imagine the grief of those pirates when they found out that Rockstar was selling their hard work for profit on Steam. It would be beautiful, ironic justice.

This.
This news is gold. Go Rockstar!

 

[Asehujiko]

This seems very familiar. Didn't this happen before? Not with Steam, but with developer releasing a crack exe as a no-cd fix?

Yes, ubishit did that with the latest rainbow 6 game.

 

[Skarvig]

This news made my day.
Is it unethical to steal from a pirate? This seems a little bit too much for me to answer.

 

[WitherVoice]

If your talking about MOD and MODING the game, i understand. But that code was make to steal and therefore isn't the same. Try to see that my way. You create something and sell it. One day a guy tell you that it like it better with something he done. It wouldn't piss you off. But if another one came and take everything just for the sake of not paying for it. Wouldn't that piss you off. Today, laws are more for criminal than victims. A thief cut himself at your house, not only would he walk free but he would sue your ass for everything he couldn't take.

Beside, that intellectual property was use to stole the intellectual property of another. And...Wait, wait... Speaking of freeware! Didn't that code end up being one? It made for hacking but Myth or whatever didn't charge anything for it. It was free for everyone. How come they can't use it? Their work was acknowledge right? Ergo, they could use it. Beside, it what i call Poetic Justice. You can't be against it without being against hackers.

The code, apparently, was a NoCD crack. I use NoCD cracks all the time, on my legally bought games; the code is made to circumvent a critical flaw of the software, not "to steal". But that's another debate. Anyway, the crack is not freeware unless it is licensed as such. A fair analogy might be a user creating a video and uploading it to YouTube. Granted, it's free for people to look at all they want, but if someone takes that video, puts it on a CD and sells it, he is still violating the law.

This is Myth we are talking about. So I'm gonna go with they don't publish under a liscence.

In that case, it's simple. The code of the crack is property of Myth.

Well Blizzard and Square Enix apparently do, so why not Rockstar?

I don't know about Square Enix, but with Blizzard, no. Blizzard often incorporate fan works and mods into their games, but they still have to CREATE said themselves, using said works as inspiration. The exception is contests and competition where the submitted works are specifically said to become the property of the contest holder.

If I write a small program that opens the game's executable, flips every 0 to 1 and every 1 to 0, I've created a program that modifies the executable. Who owns that program? I'll tell you who owns it. ME. What Myth did is make a program that does selective, targeted changes. They own it. They may not have any right to use it, but legally the DO OWN IT.

So what are they going to do, sue? It's was not only illegal in the first place but they were distibuting it for free. If they want to complain Rockstar could just sue them to hell, right?

I already said that I don't fancy it being particularly enforceable. Rockstar could sue all they want, but like it or not, they wouldn't be likely to get very far with it; it'd be an excruciatingly long and horrid case with no useful end result. Myth's case is better, in that regard, because unless a license exists that ALLOWS Rockstar to use the code commercially, they are not allowed to do it.

However, if Rockstar were to ask Myth if they could use the code, the only appropriate response from Myth would be "Yes, you can use it, we appreciate you asking, just put us in the end credits of it".

 

[tzimize]

Poor Rockstar. Actually they probably put one guy in charge of readying it for distribution, and he used some initiative.



Well it seems Rockstar has finally... *Puts on Glasses*

Cracked

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Well that's today's meme quota filled

bwahahahahaha! Thanks for the morning laugh.

OT: While I cant bring myself to say this is unethical, its definately embarrassing. I seem to remember reading about similar episodes before...and tbh its a bit like the parent saying "dont smoke" while puffing on his own cigarette.

 

[DTWolfwood]

Profiting off a pirate isn't unethical. its the way it should be! XD

 

[mikecoulter]

They have no right to complain about piracy now...

I do rather love this.

 

[Zannah]

Say what you want about pirates (In fact a lot of slightly biased and even less informed people already have), but still -

-myth created something (and it doesn't matter what it is, or for what purpose) without any commercial interests in mind. ITS. THEIR. PROPERTY. They're just nice enough people to let everyone use it.

-Rockstar comes along, takes that property, tells no one where they've got it from (this is where it get's questionable), and SELLS it (this is where it get's illegal, no matter how you look at it).

Aside from all the delicious irony, and rockstar loosing every right to complain about piracy, what they do here is simply illegal. Sell a max payne version via steam, than link to a no cd crack, and give myth the credit, that'd be all fine. Sell both as one no-cd package, that's simply illegal.
Sure, myth isn't gonna sue them, but most of the pirates you're ranting about don't get sued either. A crime stays a crime, even if it slips by unpunished.

If you're still blinded by 'but they're pirates, they stomp on puppies', answer yourself this;
Has Stephanie meyer the right to take all the fat fourteen year olds' Twilight fanfiction, print it out, and sell it, without even telling anybody? Sure, just as with max payne 2, nobody would notice any difference, but it's still theft of intellectual property.

 

[KingPiccolOwned]

blah

In Square Enix' case, they say that they own everything of their FF 11 (or whatever it was) MMO that is made in-game. I'm not 100% but I'm pretty sure that also includes any mods, although they probably mean that it does, especially their lawyers. Secondly, I don't consider this a "mod", I consider it pirating, because while you may not use it as such that doesn't mean there isn't 1000 others who do. Besides pirating is for douchebags and people who do it should be treated as such, i.e. with no courtesy about it (least that's my policy). Also, I don't see how courts are going to go on the side of MYTH, because if these are the same courts I'm thinking of, then MYTH is going to loose like a squirrel against a Tyranid horde.

I imagine the guys from the myth team are all gonna be like > yeeeeaaahhh.

DUUUUUUDE!

 

[Zannah]

In Square Enix' case, they say that they own everything of their FF 11 (or whatever it was) MMO that is made in-game. I'm not 100% but I'm pretty sure that also includes any mods, although they probably mean that it does, especially their lawyers. Secondly, I don't consider this a "mod", I consider it pirating, because while you may not use it as such that doesn't mean there isn't 1000 others who do. Besides pirating is for douchebags and people who do it should be treated as such, i.e. with no courtesy about it (least that's my policy). Also, I don't see how courts are going to go on the side of MYTH, because if these are the same courts I'm thinking of, then MYTH is going to loose like a squirrel against a Tyranid horde.

So because many people use household items like, say kinves to kill people, you consider the crafting of knives murder?
And besides, since Rockstar are the pirates in this case, I assume you declare them to be total douchebags that do not deserve any mercy whatsoever?

 

[Doug]

Also, is it unethical to pirate the work of a pirate?

Interesting question... illegal, probably not, given they own all right to modification of the code. Unethnical... I'd say no myself, as they are slightly benefiting from someone who probably did harm their sales, even if its not that much harm.

 

[Loonerinoes]

I find the people ITT who think that Myth might want to sue Rockstar over this utterly out of touch with reality.

Pirates don't believe in things like Intellectual Property. If Myth really did decide to sue, then I assure you - they'd turn out to be big hypocrites themselves. But Myth aren't an official company name or group or whatever! They're just a bunch of hackers with time to spare!

If you think this kind of news is going to reduce them to tears, then you need to re-evaluate your grasp on reality. I imagine that even as we speak they're sending 'thank you' notes to Rockstar for this awesome turn of events, because this means that their hacker group gets mentioned in every news outlets that covers this story!

But I'm not surprised most people can't wrap their brain around this simple concept and instead trumpet Intellectual Property rights on and on. Heh...it's what I've come to expect from the greater community really.

 

[MurderousToaster]

It doesn't really matter, in my opinion. One way or another Rockstar have got the Steam version functioning. The hacker group's dead, and the crack was freeware, anyway. Rockstar have committed no crime.