• Questions about spacet cadet reverse engineering

    From [email protected]@21:1/5 to All on Mon Jan 2 00:20:01 2023
    Hi all,

    recently I came across a reverse-engineered  Space Cadet clone (the Windows XP game) [1] .
    An according WNPP bug was filed some time ago [2] .
    I'm unsure whether the program could be redistributed because it's just reverse-engineered or not at all because it was derived from a non-free source. See [3] for some details. The project states that "C pseudo code [from decompliation] ... was
    converted to C++ ...".
    From #debian-devel:
    " I'm not quite sure, but I would think that either a reverse engineered codebase does *not* infringe the original's copyright, in which case it can be shipped (in main even, I'd say), or it *does* infringe, in which case it cannot be shipped at all (not
    even in non-free)."

    I'd like to ask some guidance on this. Imho this would make a nice addition to debian (if it is legally possible).

    Regards

    Matthias Geiger

    [1] https://github.com/k4zmu2a/SpaceCadetPinball
    [2] https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=1001894
    [3] https://github.com/k4zmu2a/SpaceCadetPinball/issues/1

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    <div>Hi all,<br></div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">recently I came across a reverse-engineered&nbsp; Space Cadet clone (the Windows XP game) [1] .<br></div><div dir="auto">An according WNPP bug was filed some time ago [2] .<br></div><div dir=
    "auto">I'm unsure whether the program could be redistributed because it's just reverse-engineered or not at all because it was derived from a non-free source. See [3] for some details. The project states that "C pseudo code [from decompliation] ... was
    converted to C++ ...".<br></div><div dir="auto">From #debian-devel:<br></div><div dir="auto">" <span dir="auto" class="">I'm not quite
    sure, but I would think that either a reverse engineered codebase does
    *not* infringe the original's copyright, in which case it can be shipped
    (in main even, I'd say), or it *does* infringe, in which case it cannot
    be shipped at all (not even in non-free)."</span><br></div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">I'd like to ask some guidance on this. Imho this would make a nice addition to debian (if it is legally possible).<br></div><div dir="auto"><br></div><
    div dir="auto">Regards<br></div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">Matthias Geiger<br></div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">[1] <a href="https://github.com/k4zmu2a/SpaceCadetPinball">https://github.com/k4zmu2a/SpaceCadetPinball</a><br></
    <div dir="auto">[2] <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=1001894">https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=1001894</a><br></div><div dir="auto">[3] <a href="https://github.com/k4zmu2a/SpaceCadetPinball/issues/1">https://
    github.com/k4zmu2a/SpaceCadetPinball/issues/1</a><br></div> </body>
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  • From Stephan =?ISO-8859-1?Q?Verb=FCcheln@21:1/5 to All on Mon Jan 2 08:40:01 2023
    They clearly state that they decompiled binaries from Windows XP. This
    means it is a /fork/ and *not* a /clone/.

    Since I have not heard that Microsoft has put a permissive license on
    those binaries, I would expect that the restrictions of the original
    binary apply.

    Regards

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  • From Roberto A. Foglietta@21:1/5 to [email protected] on Mon Jan 2 10:50:01 2023
    On Mon, 2 Jan 2023 at 08:36, Stephan Verbücheln <[email protected]> wrote:

    They clearly state that they decompiled binaries from Windows XP. This
    means it is a /fork/ and *not* a /clone/.

    Since I have not heard that Microsoft has put a permissive license on
    those binaries, I would expect that the restrictions of the original
    binary apply.


    It may be worth asking Microsoft to release that software with an
    open-source license or at least the binaries with a permissive license
    that allows redistributing those files to the reversed-engineered
    compiled binary to use them. After all, they did not distribute with
    Windows anymore, so their profit over that software is currently zero
    and they have nothing to lose about it.

    Best regards, R-

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