Legality of uploading an SDK

[Zhongtiao1]

I have come into possession of a (loosely) ceGCC based SDK for the Gizmondo, however, for it to work correctly, it comes with proprietary Gizmondo Libraries. I'm would like to know whether you think it would be legal to release it or not? It is pretty much useless without the libraries, so it would only be worth it to upload if I uploaded it with the libraries.

There is no mention of the authors in the libraries, so they could be tiger telematics, or some random dev for all I know.

 

[tunip3]

All I will say is releasing sdks is illegal unless you have express permission from gizmondo but I recommend you upload it to some anonymous site then leave the link on pastebin

 

[The Catboy]

Unless that SDK was already available to the public without strings attached, it's illegal to upload.

 

[Zhongtiao1]

All I will say is releasing sdks is illegal unless you have express permission from gizmondo but I recommend you upload it to some anonymous site then leave the link on pastebin

The thing is, Tiger Telematics (who created the Gizmondo) are now defunct, and have been for a while. Probably some company has the license to the Gizmondo, but would the proprietary libraries follow?

 

[Reploid]

• Nullum crimen sine lege

 

[tunip3]

The thing is, Tiger Telematics (who created the Gizmondo) are now defunct, and have been for a while. Probably some company has the license to the Gizmondo, but would the proprietary libraries follow?

Well if another company bought tiger telematics and acquired all their work that would include software as well so it would still be owned by a company

 

[Gnarmagon]

every code written and released on the internet is automatically copyrighted....

 

[tunip3]

every code written and released on the internet is automatically copyrighted....

No just no, if this was true if I wrote a hello world in c# following a guide then anyone who created the same thing and uploaded it online would be infringing on my copyright

 

[Gnarmagon]

No just no, if this was true if I wrote a hello world in c# following a guide then anyone who created the same thing and uploaded it online would be infringing on my copyright

There is a certain amount of work that goes into making copyright successful and just as with other works, copyright for computer programs prohibits not only literal copying, but also copying of "nonliteral elements", such as program's structure, sequence and organization. These non-literal aspects, however, can be protected only "to the extent that they incorporate authorship in programmer's expression of original ideas, as distinguished from the ideas themselves.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_copyright

so no you are not able to copyright a Hello World -.-

 

[tunip3]

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_copyright

so no you are not able to copyright a Hello World -.-

Not every piece of software is copyrighted

 

[Cyan]

in a more general view, sharing what's not yours without owner's consent is forbidden.
not only programs, SDK, or copyrighted arts.
Just think about private conversation, photography of someone else, phone number, contact information, etc.

no consent = wrong to share.
don't assume it's safe to share, if you think it's safe then you won't be afraid asking the owner as you are sure he will allow you to do it. get proper permission.

 

[FAST6191]

Legally speaking it is owned by whomever purchased the rights to it (or might have originally retained them), I don't know if it went with something else but most people doing purchasing of such things will know what they are doing and look to include such things with it. In the unlikely event they went straight up dead company ( https://www.vice.com/en_uk/article/...d-no-games-the-gory-story-of-the-gizmondo-656 ) and took everything with them (you might find a lot of 8 bit era and older games like this) then we get the fun and games with abandonware, though it is not actually a recognised term anywhere that I know of.

At the same time is anybody likely to care? A useless SDK for a failed console based on common and now antiquated chips, something unlikely to impact any future emulation deals or anything like that*. The effort to bring a lawsuit to sue a random. Or if you prefer then early- mid 2000s era Microsoft (a litigious beast if ever there was one) saw their SDK for the xbox leaked for multiple revisions, while it was still current and actively used to develop homebrew and apparently have devs dodge the need for the expensive developer kits. If there ever was a suit we never heard of any. I am sure they would have slapped the original leakers but they did it Scene style so yeah. Similarly you can find all sorts of SDKs from Sega, Nintendo, Sony and beyond for trivially easy download that go unbothered for possibly over a decade at this point.

As a general fan of the works places like https://tcrf.net/The_Cutting_Room_Floor , https://www.unseen64.net/ , https://assemblergames.com/ and similar efforts on our own humble forums I would like to see such a thing available for perusal.

*and if they are going to launch a civil suit then they would have to demonstrate losses.

No just no, if this was true if I wrote a hello world in c# following a guide then anyone who created the same thing and uploaded it online would be infringing on my copyright

As there are a limited number of ways to usefully do something in code then copyright tends to recognise this. It then becomes something you have to demonstrate was copied from you (if source is not available then usually any of the same bugs, same variable names, possibly disassembly that could only really have come from a quirk you did and so on and so on).
Coming the other way some countries don't recognise the ability to donate something to the public domain off the bat.