Comment on 28 years later, Lego Island's lost source code has been rediscovered – but the fans who spent nearly two years painstakingly decompiling it by hand "can't have it"

ragebutt@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

• Flipper@feddit.org ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  No. The code was discovered by a person who used to work on it back in the day. They don’t give it out, unless the decompilers have the permission to get it from the original rights owner. It’s however unclear who owns the rights. They tried to get the permission but all three companies that might own it, didn’t even answer.

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  • billiam0202@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    And yet, if they ever did release it, you can bet all three companies would C&D it.

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    • JustEnoughDucks@feddit.nl ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

      Lego is actually one of the very few companies that isn’t batshit crazy over video game IP. (Real life Lego clones are probably different though).

      They even gave a shout out to Manic Miners (a rock raiders fan remake) on the official podcast and haven’t done anything to take it down. I can’t remember if they officially said they won’t do anything also

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      • daggermoon@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

        Let’s give The LEGO Group some credit, They allow fan-made projects all the time. They even allowed a fan-made BIONICLE game onto Steam. They also allow the hosting of out of print LEGO video games.

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      • firebingo@lemm.ee ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

        They actually also hired the guy who made Manic Miners.

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      • stoy@lemmy.zip ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

        Interestingly LEGO was patented, and that patent has recently expired.

        If the company used a Trademark to protect the system they used, it would still be protected.

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      • K4mpfie@feddit.org ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

        Well they did shut down the Lego Universe reboot. Also Lego most certainly is batshit crazy when it comes to fighting other brick manufacturers and sellers. Just like any capitalist company they are afraid of losing ANY marketshare.

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    • TWeaK@lemm.ee ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

      Solution: wait a few months and release it anonymously, while claiming it was found elsewhere.

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      • SkunkWorkz@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

        Just archive it on archive.org without an announcement. And keep the metadata sparse so it’s very hard to find.

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  • ragebutt@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    or, hear me out, if we had more reasonable copyright and IP laws the permission wouldn’t be necessary for a completely dead 28 year old game that fans spent a great deal of effort reviving with no help or financing from the original rights owner

    If the person who holds the code refuses to give it out because they are a jerk then so be it I guess but the law should not stop them from doing so in this scenario. It is absurd

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    • baltakatei@sopuli.xyz ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

      If it were up to me, copyright would only last 20 years after publication for non-commercial use and author’s life + 4 years for commercial use.

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      • ragebutt@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

        If it were up to me copyright would be nonexistent for non commercial use. Who gives a shit if someone makes a fan project of your precious idea

        Commercial use I don’t know but far less than lifetime. Disney has fucked our brains with propaganda here. Creative processes flourish by remixing and making derivative works. That’s literally how Disney got to where they are. Realistically if you can’t make money in the first 10-20 years of release how likely is it that you will ever make money? Should we really stifle artistic freedom for the 0.0001% of creators that make something and take 30 years for it to catch on?

        Not to mention that this doesn’t mean your gravy train is cut off. If people buy your book or cd or whatever after 21 years you still make money. We could even make a compromised law that derivative works are okay but as long as you’re alive commercial use of the original work is protected, eg if someone wants to just sell a copy of your book or use your song in an ad you can demand payment or stop them? Although this is stupid because then you get into the pissing match of what defines the boundary of a derivative work

        And eternal life of copyright is what has led to us having our current culture in decline media landscape of endless sequels, remakes, milking licenses, and reboots. Why risk a new IP when you own 3000000 “safe bets” you can endlessly recycle bullshit

        Like what’s at my local theater right now:

        Thunderbolts: milking the marvel IP still

        The accountant 2: never heard of the first one but it deserved a sequel, apparently

        Minecraft: not a sequel or remake, at least, but cash in license nonsense to print money from kids and nostalgia bait the older zoomers that grew up attached to ipads

        Final destination: bloodlines: good thing there’s not already like 8 final destination movies that are progressively shittier

        Lilo and stitch: not the original, a live action remake. Fun fact: the writers guild doesn’t cover animated films so when Disney remakes these classic animated movies as live action they can reuse the same story and screw the original writers

        Mission impossible: the final reckoning: I bet this isn’t the final reckoning

        How to train your dragon: live action remake, probably using the same Disney loophole to fuck over writers

        Interestingly they’re also showing a mystery horror movie Plus some others that to be fair seem like original IP: sinners, shadow force, the last rodeo, ballerina

        Then a bunch of classics like one flew over the cuckoos nest and raiders of the lost ark

        7:4 garbage to original. 64% “we’re out of ideas”.

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      • gamermanh@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

        Fun fact: the vast majority (like 95+%) of creative works, be they made by individuals or corporations, earn the majority of what they will earn cross their existence in the first 5 years

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  • SkunkWorkz@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    Yeah the original Mindscape is long gone and liquidated. The Dutch subsidiary that continued under the Mindscape name probably doesn’t own the code.

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