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Question: Stealing hacks: Frowned upon or illegal?

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U.Flame

U.Flame

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    I'm sure a fair amount of people know about the drama of Light Platinum translating. Sarcastic Prince tried to make changes he wasn't allowed to make and was kicked off the project. Then he was booted out of Pokecommunity. I thought since he was kicked out, he wouldn't be able to release it. But I found out he still plans to release it anyways despite Wesley not allowing it. Is this illegal? Pokemon hacks are unnofficial, but stealing other's work is stealing nonetheless. Do we just watch this happen or can something be done?
     
    The most you can probably do is make copyright / other related complaints to file sharing websites or any other services this person tries to use to distribute content.
     
    Actually, none of this has any legal standing considering most of the images, coding, and most importantly intellectual-property are actually owned by Nintendo. ROM hacking itself is a less-than-legal practice that's more or less allowed only because the actual copyright owners somewhat turn the other cheek as long as hackers aren't making a profit from it. Basically, as long as you have a copy of the original game that you bought, it's more or less your legal realm to do with it what you will... as long as you're not trying to sell it.

    If Sarcastic Prince was reprimanded here at PC for taking unauthorized credit, that's really all that can be done from PC's perspective. Now, if Wesley so chooses he can try and report Sarcastic Prince's alterations to third party sites, as The 100 Mega Shock said... although I'm not so sure that's gonna do much good either. Once again, the content in question is murky in regards to legality. Some sites might just choose to keep their hands clean of the whole situation. Point is, nothing more the staff here can do.
     
    It's not illegal but it may be considered plagiarism.. especially now where games are now art (The National Endowment for the Arts at least says so) .. soo.. I'd personally think it'd be wrong to do so regardless of official rules.
     
    I doubt they would let Sarcastic Prince post his version here in the first place. If he were going to post it it'd have to be somewhere else, although honestly he's stupid and morally incorrect in the first place...
     
    I'd say it's frowned upon.
    Unless the creaotr of any hack ccan legally claim copyright of it (which isn't possible because it's a hack of nintendo's work) then it can't be illegal enough for lawsuits and stuff.
     
    Vrai said:
    I doubt they would let Sarcastic Prince post his version here in the first place. If he were going to post it it'd have to be somewhere else, although honestly he's stupid and morally incorrect in the first place...
    Click to expand...

    This pretty much sums up my stance on this.
    But anyway he isn't releasing it anyway it doesn't matter.
     
    It's frowned upon and will get you a permanent 4 point card on your profile.

    If you read the General rules its pretty obvious the consequences are very severe. It's just like stealing fan artwork or literature, but you wouldn't get arrested for stealing fan art or fan fics, and nor would you get arrested for stealing Rom Hacks.

    Also, Sarcastic was an idiot.
     
    Last edited:
    Nintendork15 said:
    I'd say it's frowned upon.
    Unless the creaotr of any hack ccan legally claim copyright of it (which isn't possible because it's a hack of nintendo's work) then it can't be illegal enough for lawsuits and stuff.
    Click to expand...

    Yeah, I have to agree with Nintendork on this one. Hacks can hardly be considered legal in the first place, so no lawyer's gonna help someone out because of "hack plagiarism".

    Nintendo actually said that even if you own the authentic version of a game, having any copy whatsoever is illegal. So how could someone copyright a hack? They can't.
     
    Okay guys, the point's been made long ago and that's enough bashing of a member. Banned or otherwise.

    Thanks.
     
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