I’m sure there are other interesting copyright issues here too. Like marcan pointed out, data created by programs via the user is generally the copyright of the user, not the maker of the program. Then again, copyright rights are often released via EULAs and other legal means. Perhaps a court would take the opinion that gamesaves are snapshots of internal program state and are not user data, and as such retain copyright of the program makers. That would make the Twilight hack be a derivative work, which has even more copyright ramifications!

Maybe it’s time to call a real lawyer?

So yes, people will have to trust us when we release undocumented exploits – that’s just how things work at the moment. But, well, trusting Nintendo is what caused this need in the first place, so it’s hardly something new

@dmanwell:
The Twilight Hack is based on a Twilight Princess gamesave. It has nothing to do with the game itself. The gamesave is considered a product created by the use of the software (Twilight Princess), so it is copyrighted by the player (that is, us), much like a .doc created by Word is copyrighted by the user, not Microsoft. We are using our own gamesave banners (the ones that say “Twilight Hack”) because the original banner art (which is essentially separate from the gamesave and logically independent) is no doubt copyrighted by Nintendo.

The gamesave is basically a vanilla TP gamesave with exploit code injected and an SD DOL/ELF added to it. Both the exploit payload and the DOL/ELF loader are entirely original code.

Legally, of course, it is not complicated. marcan and Team Twiizer wrote the code, so they own the copyright to it. That much is open and shut. And Argon is clearly in the wrong. Legally.

What Argon is trying to do is use the secrecy around the new exploit to try to divide the community and increase their sales. Since you guys came out strongly against his product, then it’s in his best interest, from a business standpoint, to try to discount your opinions. (Unfortunately, many people believe moral issues often don’t even enter into it when it comes to business.)

However, he does have a point, kind of. He states it hyperbolically to try to sway readers to his side, but there is a core of truth there. There is a fundamental aspect of the 3.4 HBC installation path that is intentionally mysterious, and geek-types (which are most of us) tend not to sit well with official mysteries. It is understood completely why the details of the hack are kept secret, to make it harder for Nintendo to close the security hole. But there is a fundamental disconnect here; if the exploit details are kept secret, then there will always be a percentage of users who will be distrustful. It could be argued, in fact, that an intelligent person -should- be wary of trusting his console to a stranger.

Unfortunately, there is no easy remedy for this conflict. It’s just one of those things that the homebrew scene will have to live with, it seems.

Don’t mean to say nay like a naysayer, but how exactly do you own the copyright to the Twilight Hack?

Automatic ownership versus registration is not the issue. Nintendo owns the copyright to Twilight Princess, and the Twilight Hack is probably an unauthorized derivative use.

Just saying.

“ARGON2 COST = D2PRO = SAME PRICE
ARGON2 HAS ARGONCHANNEL FOR FREE
SO WE DON’T SELL NOTHING HERE”
They don’t sell nothing they sell crap

“People that USE HACKERCHANNEL sure don’t buy a MODCHIP… or better WHO WANT TO PLAY “HOMEBREW” SURE FIND ON THE NET ALL WHAT NEED TO DO THAT FOR FREE.”
What?

“We want only to give a SERVICE to our customers that aren’t SUPER CODER or HACKER like the HACKMII comunity… or simple haven’t time to spend in searching new applications…”
Yeah, ’cause those are the people who buy modchips…

Wait, what?

AFAIK Action Replay, Game-Genie, Gameshark, Codebreaker, Xplorer, GameHunter, Xploder64, and others; are all COPYRIGHTED hardware and software for SYSTEM AND SOFTWARE HACKING!!!

For the people here who do not already know (I think Marcan and Bushing already do) I do not endorse or condone what was done with Argon2 but, like other modchips, my forum acts as a communication bridge. Unlike similar forums, I try to get both the guys behind the scenes and the consumers togther to provide better support for the end-user. Sometimes, as in this case, oil and water don’t mix. The best thing you can do is not drink it.