this post was submitted on 23 Jun 2025
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[–] borari@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 1 week ago (5 children)

Wait, what? Distributing decompiled code from a proprietary source is completely legal? Is that actually correct?

I was under the impression that the source code is copyrighted, as is the compiled build of the game, and that decompiling the game is a violation of the Terms of Service, which would make distributing it still illegal. I'd love to be wrong about this though.

[–] turkalino@lemmy.yachts 21 points 1 week ago (2 children)

The ORIGINAL source code is copyrighted, but decompiling does not give you the original source code. Decomp tools give you generic variable names like unsigned_int_4 and then it’s up to you to decipher what the purpose of the variable even is and give it a relevant name. So it’s virtually impossible you’ll get a character-for-character match to the original.

Also, decomps have different levels of accuracy. You may get something that is a perfect behavioral match, even though there’s differences in the instructions being run. You may get an instruction-perfect match but not a byte-perfect match between the binaries.

IANAL but this is what I’ve learned from following decomp projects on YouTube

[–] catloaf@lemm.ee 7 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Yeah. And all the big projects so far have required a "legally dumped" ROM as an input.

[–] smeg@feddit.uk 3 points 1 week ago

I believe that's to get the assets (i.e. the textures, character models, etc) which are still covered by copyright and so can't be included in the decomp projects

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