The Wii Homebrew Channel has been a staple of open source homebrew software for years now. And now, development has ended on the project, with the repository now archived. The reason behind that is a claim that The Wii Homebrew Channel, which uses a library called libogc in order to function, was using code stolen from either Nintendo's SDK, or from decompiled Nintendo game code. The Homebrew Channel's team had believed that the code from libogc was original, though were skeptical at the time.

The developers of libogc are also accused of stealing code from RTEMS, an open-source project, and removing all accreditation and copyright from the original project, claiming it as their own. Those working on The Homebrew Channel did not want to associate with a project using theft and copyright infringement, and felt that they had no other option than to cease development.

Marcan, notable scene developer, made an official statement, below.

This repository is archived and will not accept any further contributions.

Like most Wii homebrew software, this software depends on libogc. After development of The Homebrew Channel had already started, we discovered that large portions of libogc were stolen directly from the Nintendo SDK or games using the Nintendo SDK (decompiled and cleaned up). We thought that at least significant parts of libogc, such as its threading implementation, were original, and reluctantly continued to use the project while distancing ourselves from it.

It has recently been revealed that the threading/OS implementation in libogc is, in fact, stolen from RTEMS. The authors of libogc didn't just steal proprietary Nintendo code, but also saw it fit to steal an open source RTOS and remove all attribution and copyright information. This goes far beyond ignorance about the copyright implications of reverse engineering Nintendo binaries, and goes straight into outright deliberate, malicious code theft and copyright infringement.

The current developers of libogc are not interested in tracking this issue, finding a solution, nor informing the community of the problematic copyright status of the project. When we filed an issue about it, they immediately closed it, replied with verbal abuse, and then completely deleted it from public view.

For this reason, we consider it impossible to legally and legitimately compile this software at this point, and cannot encourage any further development.

The Wii homebrew community was all built on top of a pile of lies and copyright infringement, and it's all thanks to shagkur (who did the stealing) and the rest of the team (who enabled it and did nothing when it was discovered). Together, the developers deceived everyone into believing their work was original.

Please demand that the leaders and major contributors to console or other proprietary device SDKs and toolkits that you use and work with do things legally, and do not tolerate this kind of behavior.

If you wish to check for yourself, for example, you can compare this function in libogc to this function in a really old version of RTEMS. While the code has been simplified and many identifiers renamed, it is clear that the libogc version is a direct descendant of the RTEMS version. It is not possible for two code implementations to end up this similar purely by chance.

Source

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[SillyBee]

Never thought I would see the day, a shame drama like this can still occur after so much time

 

[solitonmedic]

I remember the Wii modding scene were always so shifty.

Things have been better now, but this gives much better perspective on why that those beginnings were so shifty to begin with.

 

[SnivySquid65]

Just made a thread about this an hour ago.
Really sad to see it happen like this.

 

[MysticStarlight]

No way so we can't distribute the HBC wad now?!

 

[Larsenv]

 

[SnivySquid65]

No way so we can't distribute the HBC wad now?!

No, you just can't make it from the source code anymore.
Doesn't mean much, it hasn't had updates in years.

Edit: I mean, you CAN, but it's pretty immoral.

 

[Larsenv]

Im disappointed in marcan for creating drama about this, this is not worth starting a commotion about in my opinion. What's next? Git submodules are stolen code? Code generated by ChatGPT? Code reverse engineered from another project which reverse engineered code themselves? (which is what happened with me)

I understand its controversial but marcan doesnt actually have the best reputation anymore

 

[MPRTwice]

This was outright admitted by them years ago, hence they did not allow it to work with emulators like dolphin until the wii was phased out.

Almost surprising that it is mentioned now, years later.

 

[cearp]

Chary you should have added a trigger warning or something, this is devastating news.
(I'm joking)

Edit: I mean, you CAN, but it's pretty immoral.

Are you serious? "pretty" immoral?? more like totally immoral, you'd have to be a thoroughly bad person to do it.
(again, joking)

 

[tech3475]

Isn't the 'home button menu' also taken from the SDK/Nintendo?

edit:

Stand corrected, see below.

 

[NetSanity]

Well well well.

 

[Flame]

The software used to pirate, mainly other software, was illegal.

No way!

 

[SnivySquid65]

Isn't the 'home button menu' also taken from the SDK/Nintendo?

No. Homebrew developers make their own home button functions.

 

[Bladexdsl]

yeah well it wasn't the only thing that was using stolen code in the wii era. it's pirating for fuck sake what did you expect?! and if you think there is shit out there now that isn't doing the same thing than your clueless. we are pirates we don't care where it comes from only how we can get it.

 

[SnivySquid65]

yeah well it wasn't the only thing that was using stolen code in the wii era. it's pirating for fuck sake what did you expect?! and if you think there is shit out there now that isn't doing the same thing than your clueless. we are pirates we don't care where it comes from only how we can get it.

homebrew does NOT equal piracy. I have Sonic Mania Plus on my Wii but by no means did I pirate it, I bought the game on Steam and ported it using a fan-made public decomp.

 

[jesus96]

Oh no

Anyway

Yarhar flide dede

 

[MysticStarlight]

Libogc... Doesn't Priiloader also use that?

 

[TotalJustice]

Libogc... Doesn't Priiloader also use that?

All homebrew made for the GameCube and Wii use it.

 

[SnivySquid65]

Libogc... Doesn't Priiloader also use that?

It's a needed tool to compile stuff for Wii and Gamecube...
Unfortunate, eh?