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Guy finds Starcraft source code and returns it to Blizzard

D

Damaniel

Banned
Peltz said:
This wasn't "theft" (aka misappropriation) of trade secrets. The guy did nothing wrong. He didn't publish the materials and merely came across them incidentally. He had no obligation to return them.
Click to expand...

Would you be willing to take that to court against Blizzard's army of lawyers, all of whom are no doubt far more well-versed on copyright and trade secret law than any random lawyer you could afford to defend you?

Supporting the release of stuff like this isn't all that far off from supporting piracy - it's free distribution of something that isn't yours without the permission of the copyright holder. Yeah, the game is 20 years old, but that doesn't make that source code any less protected than it was when it was first written.
 
J

JoeMartin

Member
Meh, I would have made a tremendous amount of both physical and digital backups of the disc without telling a soul and then and only then reveal that I had the original, felt out the resulting legal situation, played dumb and returned the disc to Blizzard in any case, then very carefully decided where if ever the backups would be made public from there.

I'm going to assume that's what he did/is doing.
 
F

Foxy the Fox

Member
There is no "right thing" here, he was the rightful owner of the disc which he acquired legally.

He had some options:

1- Give it back to Blizz and have a great time with them while enjoying the free stuff.

2- Keep it as a super rare collectible item.

3- Sell it to collectors for a big amount of money and help to pay the bills, etc etc.

4- Don't say anything and just rip it and release the source code to the web, so people can learn a lot and port it to every device imaginable and be a game changer to the homebrew scene.

I would go with whatever option he is happy with, but don't make it as giving the disc to Blizz is the "right choice".
 
L

Lothars

Member
R_thanatos said:
I'm on the camp that he should have kept a copy of the disc.

If he got that disc with legal means , then i honnestly don't think there is anything wrong with a copy on the side.

Now the trip was good stuff, great for him
Click to expand...
I would be shocked if he didn't make a copy but he did the right thing and returned it to Blizzard, that's the right way to go about it and it sounds like he got a good reward for it.
 
Blam

Blam

Member
Such an idiot for just throwing it up like that he got it in legal means.

Also I wouldn't be surprised if this wasn't the only one of these.

Either way if he doesn't make a copy of this I'm going to be beyond shocked at his Idiocracy.

It'll be on par with the guy who broke the Xbox Alpha Devkit.
 
T

TheLostBigBoss

Banned
Loxley said:
What a bunch of freaking man-children, good grief.



Badasses in this thread acting like they wouldn't have shat themselves the moment they realized they would be going to court against Blizzard and it's army of lawyers.
Click to expand...

I'm going to haggle them, they will have no other option but to give in to my demands!


"Hello, this is Blizzard Legal on the line"

"...Oh hi, this is Bob"
 
T

Trace

Banned
The hell is wrong with you people? Sure he got hold of it, but that doesn't mean he suddenly owns the source code, it's still Blizzard's property. He did the right thing returning it, and it sounds like he got a pretty good deal out of all of it.
 
C

Christhor

Member
I'd been pissed, drowning in money Blizzard should have just given him money instead of the trip. What would happen if he said he lost the source code after they contacted him? That's what I would have done, then hide it somewhere they'd never find it.
 
V

Vitet

Member
I think some people are a bit confused. This guy owned legally the medium, the CD itself. The code in it is protected by copyright laws and Blizzard lawyers could fuck him even if he acquired that disc "legally".
 
G

Gentleman Jack

Member
Foxy the Fox said:
There is no "right thing" here, he was the rightful owner of the disc which he acquired legally.

He had some options:

1- Give it back to Blizz and have a great time with them while enjoying the free stuff.

2- Keep it as a super rare collectible item.

3- Sell it to collectors for a big amount of money and help to pay the bills, etc etc.

4- Don't say anything and just rip it and release the source code to the web, so people can learn a lot and port it to every device imaginable and be a game changer to the homebrew scene.

I would go with whatever option he is happy with, but don't make it as giving the disc to Blizz is the "right choice".
Click to expand...

In a property sense he possesses the physical disk yes, but its contents are still fully protected by copyright owned by Blizzard, so options 2-4 in your scenario all put him at significant legal risk. When it comes to Blizzard and litigation, I would not bet on skating in front of a judge just because he bought the box that contained the disk.

Like, the only one he can even conceivably get away with is option 2, but that assumes that he doesn't make knowledge of the disk's existence public in the first place, kind of like collectors who own movie reels they have no legal right to.
 
A

Ash735

Member
Loxley said:
Badasses in this thread acting like they wouldn't have shat themselves the moment they realized they would be going to court against Blizzard and it's army of lawyers.
Click to expand...
That's why you DON'T mention it. Jeez, everyone these days can't wait to scream from the rooftops when they find something rare without fully thinking things through, he could've kept this, ripped the disc, passed it around a bit on the quiet and THEN if he wants to, shout about how he found the disc.

By shouting about it right away, YES, it attracts lawyers and YES it means if anything happens now, the eye will be focused on him. It's like the 90s shareware attitude has just evaporated and in place we get selfie culture with everyone running to Reddit.

Lets look at past examples, if you want to get technically, legally ANYTHING like this purchased from car boot sales, garage sales, etc, are illegal, does that mean everyone should call up and return the items they just purchased? Imagine if that guy who found the Nintendo PlayStation prototype did that, just called up Sony/Nintendo and went "Hey guys, I think this is yours, can I return it?", of course after he got a load of pics and upvotes on Reddit and an article on Kotaku, he's got his fame now!
 
V

Vincent Alexander

Member
Pretty awesome, though I'd like the story more if Blizzard's first contact with him wasn't with the legal team. I'd be a little grumpy to deal with them immediately from a company I love. All the gifts after would probably make up for it though...lol. Pretty great what Blizzard did in return. Good guys.
 
BibiMaghoo

BibiMaghoo

Member
The cynical part of me says that the follow up gear and trip was done precisely because it would be fair to assume a backup exists. To take the guy out for drinks makes it personal, and far less likely he would ever release that copy.

The rest of me thinks that was real nice of them. If I'm totally honest I would probably have put it on Ebay myself, or sold it via some other means if that failed.
 
T

TheLostBigBoss

Banned
BibiMaghoo said:
The cynical part of me says that the follow up gear and trip was done precisely because it would be fair to assume a backup exists. To take the guy out for drinks makes it personal, and far less likely he would ever release that copy.

The rest of me thinks that was real nice of them. If I'm totally honest I would probably have put it on Ebay myself, or sold it via some other means if that failed.
Click to expand...

You're on to something.

Get to grab a few drinks with the "dev team"

Next thing you know you're waking up in your own vomit tied to a metal chair with two masked men demanding where the copies are.
 
M

MikeyB

Member
Check out the Uniform Trade Secrets Act. Misappropriation is broad and can be inadvertent.

Property rights line up with moral rights in my view.
 
B

Blizzard

Banned
Foxy the Fox said:
There is no "right thing" here, he was the rightful owner of the disc which he acquired legally.
Click to expand...
This is not the way things work.

The disc could have been stolen, for one thing, which doesn't mean he's the "rightful owner".

For another example, you can't buy a Windows DVD and claim you're the "rightful owner" of the files on the disc. You're licensing them, not owning them.

Lastly, you can't buy a music CD and legally upload all the songs to the internet just because you say you're the "rightful owner" of the disc. No, you'd be violating the law.
 
Q

Quadraphonic

Member
Blizzard said:
This is not the way things work.

The disc could have been stolen, for one thing, which doesn't mean he's the "rightful owner".

For another example, you can't buy a Windows DVD and claim you're the "rightful owner" of the files on the disc. You're licensing them, not owning them.

Lastly, you can't buy a music CD and legally upload all the songs to the internet just because you say you're the "rightful owner" of the disc. No, you'd be violating the law.
Click to expand...

But there is no license agreement attached to source code.
 
P

Professor Beef

Banned
I'd have more respect for people willing to sacrifice this guy's life for the source code if they just came out and said "I really want to mod this game" instead of pretending to care about preservation.
 
Audioboxer

Audioboxer

Member
Nice enough from Blizzard, if the guy is happy he is happy. No doubt from the text if he gets taken out for drinks he'll get to meet some cool people he'd probably never otherwise have been able to meet/speak to in his life. Sometimes that is "priceless".

However, it's 2017, who wouldn't make an ISO copy? *Source code magically hits the net in 2018*
 
M

mbpm1

Member
Dude's like Indiana Jones.

Found history and decided it belongs in a museum

Not what I would have done but it's a story i guess
 
P

ponpo

( ≖‿≖)
You mean those people who made those insanely convincing X-Men UMS maps where cyclops was a Terran marine didn't have source code access? I won't believe that.
 
F

Fuchsdh

Member
BibiMaghoo said:
The cynical part of me says that the follow up gear and trip was done precisely because it would be fair to assume a backup exists. To take the guy out for drinks makes it personal, and far less likely he would ever release that copy.

The rest of me thinks that was real nice of them. If I'm totally honest I would probably have put it on Ebay myself, or sold it via some other means if that failed.
Click to expand...

I don't think if they were that conniving they would bother with that. If the source code leaked onto the interwebs any time soon it would be pretty obvious who leaked it.
 
Kaleinc

Kaleinc

Banned
TheLostBigBoss said:
I'm going to haggle them, they will have no other option but to give in to my demands!


"Hello, this is Blizzard Legal on the line"
Click to expand...
"Helo, this is Roman, Bob's rusky cousin. I ken't biliv Bob sent me cd, even mai bear stoppd uzing it 10 yeaz ago, cyka. Make it I'm invinsibl in starkraft 2 or u be regret it"
 
A

Ambient80

Member
K.Jack said:
No, I never would've made it public.
Click to expand...

So it would have just sat in your house and done nothing?

Sorry, I'll take the free swag and all-expanse paid trip to Blizzcon to hang out with devs. You can keep your trophy CD that no one will apparently ever know about.
 
B

Borman

Member
Ive sat on the source code for multiple AAA games, both incomplete and complete. For every community funding of a prototype release that goes well, there are times when it gets too much of the wrong amount of attention and gets shut down by the company. Not sure how many of you have gotten legal notices from Microsoft, but it doesn't make the day go well.

I don't blame the guy. Preservation is important, and part of that is recognizing that if we want companies to see the importance, we have to work with them.

And if people think you can truly anonymously upload stuff in this day and age, you're delusional. Not that it would be easy to track down, but with ActiBlizzard money, I wouldn't be the one risking things.

And these things tend to sell for far less than you might expect.

Edit: And there is at least one game that was brought back online at least partially from source code that I tracked down.
 
T

The Llama

Member
Speaking as a lawyer, lol @ whoever there decided to have the lawyer reach out first. Should have had someone else reach out, offer him the free stuff, and only have the lawyer send the nasty letter if he wasn't gonna go a long with it.

#publicrelations101
 
Blam

Blam

Member
Borman said:
Ive sat on the source code for multiple AAA games, both incomplete and complete. For every community funding of a prototype release that goes well, there are times when it gets too much of the wrong amount of attention and gets shut down by the company. Not sure how many of you have gotten legal notices from Microsoft, but it doesn't make the day go well.

I don't blame the guy. Preservation is important, and part of that is recognizing that if we want companies to see the importance, we have to work with them.

And if people think you can truly anonymously upload stuff in this day and age, you're delusional. Not that it would be easy to track down, but with ActiBlizzard money, I wouldn't be the one risking things.

And these things tend to sell for far less than you might expect.

Edit: And there is at least one game that was brought back online at least partially from source code that I tracked down.
Click to expand...

I don't think it would be a online type of deal, more like they wanted the source to mod the game.
 
R

Rookhelm

Member
HeatBoost said:
Maybe I don't quite have a grasp of the extent to which these mods would work, but Starcraft 1 already seems pretty modable. To what extent are we talking about changing things, exactly?
Click to expand...

It's the original programming code for the game. You could literally change anything and upload it as a new game.
 
F

Foxy the Fox

Member
Didn't wanted to resurrect the thread but reading about the remastered, I found this bit:

Blizzard said:
Rob: Oh, yeah. No joke. To start with, we had to rip out all the sprites from the final, shipped version of the game. It’s not like we had this great awesome system on the backend where all our assets were saved . . . no no, we basically had to reverse-engineer our own game, to suck out the sprites and build the tooling around it, just so we could then go and find artists who could re-envision, reimagine, and put all the detail to the original structures and units. We had to rebuild all the models—to everything!
Click to expand...

https://starcraft.com/en-us/articles/20726732

That means that if they had that source code they would have saved thousands of dollars in man-hours?

If that is true, they would be very frustrated to find that CD after they finish SC remastered.
 
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