[SXX]

99% of game developers dont build on their own engines. It's would be like looking into Linux kernel source code to build your own music player app or TODO app. Few people who do heavy engine lifting in C++ simply not gonna bother with someone else code.

But I pretty sure everyone in modding community would be really happy.

[mhh__]

Everyone should read the Linux kernel source to see how aggressively up a painful local maximum you can get in the name of simplicity.

[asddubs]

What do you mean?

[diarrhea]

Just a guess, but perhaps things like the process model. PID 1, fork, exec and so forth. Or argv, or environment variables, or “everything is a file”, or having just three streams (stdin, stdout, stderr).

In isolation, all beautifully simple concepts, but there has been an awful lot built on top over several decades, stretching and outgrowing the simplicity. The complexity of modern technology has to live somewhere, though.

[formerly_proven]

I read a lot of Linux kernel code and I’m just a meager application developer.

[fnordpiglet]

The key difference is you are licensed and entitled to read the Linux source code.

GTA 5 hasn’t been licensed to you and you are absolutely not entitled to read it, even if you managed to get hold of it due to a theft. By reading it as an app developer you taint your knowledge with stolen intellectual property and stolen trade secrets, potentially exposing yourself and any game you work on (including for an employer) to criminal and civil penalties.

That’s the immense value of open source and Linux in specific. You are allowed to read it, improve it, rip out bits that are useful (as compliant with the license), and use the concepts as fully licensed intellectual property without trade secret encumbrance.

I am personally really interested in reading the source and see how they do things. I’m certain there’s fascinating bits of tech in there. But I wouldn’t underestimate the risk I would put myself, my family, and my employer at and the willingness of corporations to crush the small guy. See the pain inflicted by downloading mp3s, and the marginal value of copying an mp3 is infinitesimal compared to the source code of a AAA game to the studio.

[ndriscoll]

If developers became tainted by knowledge of proprietary/secret code, wouldn't you be bound for life to your first employer? And wouldn't reading GPL code like Linux also taint your mind for life? What if a coworker or some random FOSS author read the code and later used a technique they saw, and then you see it and your mind is now tainted too? Sounds like a nonsense "risk".

[fnordpiglet]

You actually are bound to not disclosure their trade secrets. Trade knowledge isn’t a trade secret, but there are aspects of their code they may consider “secret sauce,” which if you took and implemented at a competitor you better believe they will come after your employer for. I’ve seen it many times in my career over the last 30 years. Be careful, it’s absolutely not nonsense and you personally are potentially implicated.

[tarruda]

Is the risk any different than that if a programmer who used to work for Rockstar games?

Aren't former employees allowed to learn from their experience working on GTA V and develop products based on that knowledge, just as Rockstar programmers have used prior knowledge to develop GTA V?

[fnordpiglet]

The key is trade secrets. There are aspects that are common trade skills that are transferable, but some things are considered secrets in their novelty and competitive advantage. You absolutely can not disclose those to subsequent employers.

Usually though it’s really hard to establish this unless you were a key person behind some key technology. But it’s very common in high finance (high end hedge funds, etc) that they go after people for bringing some algorithm or technique to a competitor.

But there is a huge difference between knowledge gained in employment, which is protected by employment law and common sense, and knowledge gained in the furtherance of a crime. Copying, distributing, studying, and replicating trade secrets from stolen source code is ABSOLUTELY not protected under any squinting at the law.

[worik]

> By reading it as an app developer you taint your knowledge with stolen intellectual property and stolen trade secrets, potentially exposing yourself and any game you work on (including for an employer) to criminal and civil penalties.

Yes

How stupid. What a stupid waste

Got to love capitalism

[fnordpiglet]

That’s why I’m a big fan of free software (in the FSF sense). But being a fan also means I’m aware of the consequences we face in our current structure. I’m worried reading these posts most people don’t realize the grave danger they could be in.