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by matheusmoreira 941 days ago
https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/17/102

> (b) In no case does copyright protection for an original work of authorship extend to any idea, procedure, process, system, method of operation, concept, principle, or discovery, regardless of the form in which it is described, explained, illustrated, or embodied in such work.

The way the game works is not protected. Only Nintendo's code is.
1 comments
AshamedCaptain 941 days ago
You are doing the same mistake as the other poster: claiming the consequent. I could also say that my magical transformation process produces code which is not Microsoft's, even when it obviously ingests code that is Microsoft's. Why would your method be stripping copyright protection while mine wouldn't? What's the difference from what you are claiming?

Frankly at this point I just want to point out that if in your world view this is allowed, then _all_ software copyright is pointless, since anyone could apply the same rationale to any program in the world. What's the point of the GPL on such world?

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matheusmoreira 941 days ago
> even when it obviously ingests code that is Microsoft's

Fair use.

Sony Computer Entertainment v. Connectix Corp.

https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=716676913673727...

> The object code of a program may be copyrighted as expression, 17 U.S.C. § 102(a), but it also contains ideas and performs functions that are not entitled to copyright protection. See 17 U.S.C. § 102(b).

> Object code cannot, however, be read by humans.

> The unprotected ideas and functions of the code therefore are frequently undiscoverable in the absence of investigation and translation that may require copying the copyrighted material.

> We conclude that, under the facts of this case and our precedent, Connectix's intermediate copying and use of Sony's copyrighted BIOS was a fair use for the purpose of gaining access to the unprotected elements of Sony's software.

Not only are the methods of operation which underlie the code completely unprotected, the copying of and the application of tools to the code for the purpose of exercising your right to discover those unprotected elements is fair use.

> then _all_ software copyright is pointless

It is pointless. I am a copyright abolitionist.

> What's the point of the GPL on such world?

None. The GPL was literally created in response to copyright protection being extended to software. No copyright, no point to the GPL.

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AshamedCaptain 941 days ago
> [software copyright] is pointless.

So you provide one answer on my question of which thought process leads to these conclusions: wishful thinking.

Sigh.

See what I just wrote on the other comment:

> These exceptions allows you to perform RE to _understand_ the code in question for interoperability, not to strip it from copyright and start distributing it as if it was your own code. And in most jurisdictions such exception only becomes possible when it's the _only option available_ to interoperate. As this is _hardly_ the only option available to run this game on your platform (emulation, for example, is completely legal, AND you could RE this title to fix your emulator), this exception hardly applies here.

This is exactly what actually happened in the case you are quoting.

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