OpenKore is now illegal

[isieo]

well who will gravity sue? me? =P

[sli]

Honestly? They'd probably try and sue the company handling the DNS for openkore.com, Sourceforge, or something stupid like that.

[Cozzie]

which they would remove us. The thing here is that it dosent matter if we are really illegal or not (because this is not contested yet in court) but for sure we are in the grey, and when source forge is sent a cease and desist letter, they will comply.

Afterwards, it's highly likely openkore is likely to have to be hosted on our own server. That is where the real trouble comes. It's also highly likely then, the server owner and current openkore administrators will be on the crosshair since they cant go after every dev.

On the topic of which aspect we MIGHT be breaking the law in, it relates to reverse engineering (refer blizzard vs bnetd) first, xkore and flds for redistributing their copyrighted stuff.

Reality is that gravity probably does not care and if we are going to get into trouble, eA will get the sticks before we do.

[Bibian]

fld files are not subject to copyright (afaik), they are not made by Gravity... they are derived from the map files

[sli]

Actually, if eA switches to a new map format, they're completely safe as long as the code is 100% original. Same with us, our code is 100% original and contains no copywritten data or code. The most Gravity can do is bitch and whine.

[Cozzie]

Oh i dint know about the fld, so we're probably fine with the copyright issues but reverse engineering their codes (such as padded packets and probably flds) will be the one that may cause is trouble.

[Bibian]

Oh i dint know about the fld, so we're probably fine with the copyright issues but reverse engineering their codes (such as padded packets and probably flds) will be the one that may cause is trouble.

reverse engineering is legal over here, as long as you have a legitimate source (aka, didnt pirate the copy).
And since Gravity lets just about anyone download the client, its totally legal here

Im not sure if reverse engineering is legal in the US though, i think it is but only if its for educational purposes i think? you might need permission from the owner too.
if i remember correctly from the DMCA

[sli]

In the US, reversing padded packets is illegal under the DMCA. But so is verifying credit card numbers because you have to reverse engineer the number to verify it.

[Technology]

Isn't reverse engineering as old as mankind itself?
From the point where one caveman picked up a rock and trew it at someone and
another person saw this happening, took a rock himself and copied or even improved the process.
Not allowing people to reverse engineer is like not allowing mankind to evolve further.

Why did someone start the development of Openkore anyways?
Openkore is an automization program for (boring, mindkilling) RO tasks.
Hunting a card or leveling a character, aka doing the same repetitive action for hours that is not what people look for?
Gamemakers should not expect people to do these tasks,
instead they should create more interresting/challenging aspects in their games that people could actually enjoy.

Wait a minute,
what is more challenging/satisfying than trancendenting these tasks and actually helping to solve mankinds problems?
Thus being a part of the automatisation projects.
For RO, openkore is the fucking holy grail for mankind, gravity.
One guy found(ed) it, and shared it here with mankind.

Gamemakers should not try to exterminate the consequence of the problem,
they should solve the problem at the cause, at its roots !

i rest my case, fuck pointless laws.

[sli]

Just because it's old doesn't mean it's not illegal. How long has pot been around?

Reverse engineering is the basis of corporate espionage, which if not regulated would cause an economic collapse (because everyone would just rip off everyone else's shit). The point is you can bitch and moan all you want and nothing's going to happen. No one in a position to change the law sees anything wrong with it, which is the problem with government, and even if they did the various corporations would just throw money at them to keep their mouth shut.