Comment on Mario Kart 64 got finally decompiled!
DoPeopleLookHere@sh.itjust.works 13 hours agoDecompiling 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
Matriks404@lemmy.world 3 hours ago
No one says that the actual source code (C or whatever) is “piped out”. The machine instructions (in form of a binary) you get is the code that is executed by the machine/emulator and it’s 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.
I don’t understand what kind of mental gymnastics you need to do to think that you are doing something original here.
DoPeopleLookHere@sh.itjust.works 2 hours ago
I’m wrong about why,
But it’s been ruled as fair use
jsomae@lemmy.ml 1 hour ago
That says reverse engineering is ok – not sharing RE’d code.
DoPeopleLookHere@sh.itjust.works 8 minutes ago
AFAIK fair use means you can redistribute.