Source Code Stolen

Video game concept

At some point, someone illegally acquired the source code to these games.

54
games
18
platforms
This can be devastating for a proprietary project. As the stolen code can be used to undermine the profit potential of the typical proprietary software business model and possibly be a costly and time consuming legal entanglement for the rightful owner to stop this illegal activity, many victims make the decision to orphan the work. Even in cases where they do not know the thief's intention to take action to undermine the profit potential. And even in cases where the thief's stated intention will not undermine the profit potential and may in fact increase profit potential (porting to other platforms and offering the improved derivative code to the rightful owner of the original work, for instance).

Note, only a creditable accusation or claim need be publicly stated for this tag to apply. Any legal proceedings, or lack thereof, that prove or disprove theft are irrelevant. The statement of the accusation implies the creator will be choosing actions as if the theft is factual. Also, if source is accidently released to the public, actions will be taken as if theft has occured.

US copyright law, the DMCA, rights granted to 3rd parties, and accuasations of theft, can sometimes interact in such a way that ligitement rights to source code are invalidated for all parties. That is to say, no one, not even the copyright holder can't legally use the code. Such is the case with System Shock 2.

Stolen source can also violate privacy. Many developers write their code under the assumption that it will never been scrutinised by anyone but themselves. Also, source code is not typically stored by itself. Hard drives and other mass storage in paticular tend to have emails, all kinds of documents, web history, and pretty much anything a person might put on their computer. But even just the source code files may reveal dumb ideas, foul language, and deeply personal information that were never intended to be seen.

Popular tags

arenashooter famitsugoty fzero mario mario-universe mariokart pokemon pokemon-universe quake-series racinggame scrollingshooter starfox supermariobros systemshock zelda zelda-universe zeldalike

Parent group

Source Code Concepts

Child groups

Zelda Classic / ZQuest Engine, Dark Engine

Games by year

83858789919395979901030507091113151719 82460

The first Source Code Stolen video game was released in 1983.

Nintendo, Atari and Konami published most of these games.

Platforms

SNES 16
N64 9
MS-DOS 5
Windows 4
Atari 7800 4
NES 2
Nintendo DS 2
Linux 2
Atari 2600 1
Mega Drive 1
GBC 1
GBA 1
Apple II E 1
Dreamcast 1
Arcade 1
Mac OS Classic 1
Neo-Geo 1
Mac OS X 1