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Retron 5 contains multiple GPL violations, illegally uses Retroarch code
- Thread starter thefil
- Start date
KojiKnight
Member
Intentionally blowing over everything else and trying to play it off, case of fanboy much?
(see I can make dumb generalizations too!)
Zombie James
Banned
This is actually the dumbest license violation. Of all the sources available for great looking license and royalty-free fonts, they go with Verdana instead.
RunWhiteBoyRun
Member
Did you actually read the OP?
They're illegally using all the emulators, parts of the UI, and likely the OS and system libraries. But let's focus on the fonts.
entremet
Member
I'm talking about procuring roms.
Unless you dump your own roms, obtaining roms is legally sketchy at best. Personally I don't hold it against anyone, especially for games that will never see the light of day again.
It's just my style.
TyrantGuardian
Member
So, what does any of that have to do with this particular situation?
Some arcade boards are more common than certain carts or CDs these days. Piracy is piracy no matter how you rationalize it.
Personally if the game isn't commonly available in some form today (Virtual Console, PSN, GOG, etc) I tend not to care if people download it or not. And buying a used copy doesn't help game makers either so I don't really care about people resorting to piracy over that either. Ideally publishers would be able to match the emulation scene in terms of releases, options and convenience but sadly that's just not the world we live in.
No it didn't. There was talk of some hardware emulation and acuracy on a high level. That sounded like BS to me from the start.
March of the Crabs
Member
Don't really give a shit. As a consumer, it is not my responsibility to know or care about this stuff. Kind of a bummer that Hyperkin would do this, but I love the product and will continue to do so.
I don't have or want one.
I just think making emulators that are widely used for piracy and then getting mad at piracy has a twinge of hipocracy to it. I know that it can be used for legitimate carts, but c'mon.
This is like saying it shouldn't be illegal to be shot by a gun you made.
fvng
Member
What? How do their patent violations affect your enjoyment of the product?
"Damn I would have loved this product more if they weren't entangled in a legal battle"
I'm glad I went back to the store for a refund, two weeks ago.
Terrible build quality, even more delay on my TV than when my PC is plugged, neat UI but needs way more polish.
Now that I know they stole others without even asking, wow....going Framemeister master race in the future.
Terrible build quality, even more delay on my TV than when my PC is plugged, neat UI but needs way more polish.
Now that I know they stole others without even asking, wow....going Framemeister master race in the future.
Probably this points to either your TV or its settings. My R5 performs absolutely fine without any perceptible delay, and I have a Framemeister hooked up as well... Most if not all accounts of R5 suffering delay have pointed to a TV problem.
Radius4
Member
They seem to have released source code for the cores, stil theyl failing to address the issues.
They are not responding to any of the public threads now floating around regarding this matter. This is quite shitty of them. And now their page lists a contact email (lawrence@hyperkin.com). My guess is they plan to offer "financial compensation" in exchange for a license exception.
Another shady thing is that they kind of refused to address this being an emulator and there have been claims here and there about everything being developed from scratch. As far as I know they have a follow up to the RetroN5 that plays DOS games (funny thing, they called it a "DOS box" in an interview and in the AMA thread they claimed they are creating their own solution instead of Dosbox). Nothing else has been said about that. Guess they are waiting for the new DOSbox-libretro port...
Another funny statement:
"it was kinda hard being able to sync the cartridge timely with the sound" - Chris Gallizzi
Sync the cartridge?? say what?? even if there was something like "syncing the cartrdige" this thing is just a retrode clone (a shitty built one) connected to a MK808 stick. Cartridges are dumped and then played by the emulator.
It seems they don't even rad the licenses:
Quote from snes9x-license.txt from their SNES core:
So they still are failing to address one of the biggest issues.
There is no way they can pull this off. The only alternative is bsnes. Good luck running bsnes on Rockchip 3066 hardware (if anyone is wondering, this stick uses pretty much the same hardware)
They are not responding to any of the public threads now floating around regarding this matter. This is quite shitty of them. And now their page lists a contact email (lawrence@hyperkin.com). My guess is they plan to offer "financial compensation" in exchange for a license exception.
Another shady thing is that they kind of refused to address this being an emulator and there have been claims here and there about everything being developed from scratch. As far as I know they have a follow up to the RetroN5 that plays DOS games (funny thing, they called it a "DOS box" in an interview and in the AMA thread they claimed they are creating their own solution instead of Dosbox). Nothing else has been said about that. Guess they are waiting for the new DOSbox-libretro port...
Another funny statement:
"it was kinda hard being able to sync the cartridge timely with the sound" - Chris Gallizzi
Sync the cartridge?? say what?? even if there was something like "syncing the cartrdige" this thing is just a retrode clone (a shitty built one) connected to a MK808 stick. Cartridges are dumped and then played by the emulator.
It seems they don't even rad the licenses:
Quote from snes9x-license.txt from their SNES core:
So they still are failing to address one of the biggest issues.
There is no way they can pull this off. The only alternative is bsnes. Good luck running bsnes on Rockchip 3066 hardware (if anyone is wondering, this stick uses pretty much the same hardware)
runnin_blue
Banned
The licensing stuff is pretty shady but I can't agree with you about the R5's performance. Mine runs pretty flawlessly.
Seems Hyperkin released a statement to Nintendolife about this.
Pathetic.
Hyperkin's Lawrence Lee said:
Pathetic.
sörine;131513144 said:
Quite the lame response and go-to boilerplate for companies who get caught. But at least they felt the need to address the issue. A decade ago GPL violations happened left and right without any pressure by the cheaters to even bother responding.
And because of the GPL licence, suspicious console hardware makers or even regular people who still think there is stolen code lurking inside have full access to examine how it runs and how much effort is expended to avoid even the slightest suggestion of anything remotely similar to the original implementation.
I'd be more concerned with stolen code making it onto something like my PS4 or other proprietary device because of an oversight or somebody who just got lazy on the team and took an implementation that was documented and figured nobody would notice or be able to easily prove it once they compiled the code. Companies or rogue lazy developers do it all the time and it can be very hard to catch unless they were sloppy or there is some way to trigger bugs or flaws that exist in both the GPL code and the unlicensed software that incorporates it.
sixteen-bit
Member
I'm surprised they responded tbh
Ah, thanks. So is it now more legal? And, is it even a worthwhile purchase?
Ah, alright. Thanks man. That's too bad that there were any shady practices.