What a shame.

We have to face the fact that soon enough, any type of software question will be over.

What’s a “software question?”

I think you/that article are overthinking it. Compiling just means turning source code (written/readable by humans) into machine code (aka a program/game). “Decompiling” is the reverse of that, where you turn machine code into source code.

A lot of these AI de/re/comp/port/whatever projects are made by script kiddies/morons who don’t know what they’re doing. Sometimes you see them claim that a project is a “static recompilation”, but when you look at the code it’s literally just a bespoke emulator that runs the game.

Which is to say, don’t get too hung up on these terms, since they’re often misused either way.

I think that’s a very interesting point about the compiler, companies have really leaned on that as a way to obfuscate code, some folks seem to think compiled is as good as encrypted? Just another lock on the door, I guess, and a free one at that.

Well, (depending on the language) compilation is a 100% lossy conversion. So when a game gets ‘decompiled’ with an LLM like this, they’re not restoring the original code. It’s just generating new code with the same behavior, which is functionally the same. People doing this generally wasn’t considered infringement, but it’s clear that having a machine automate it is a big problem. Even if we ignore the fact that the output of an LLM is legally tainted/grey area, the scale at which it can happen now means we need new laws to deal with it.

This is basically doing to software what the internet did to piracy. That led to the DMCA, which as shitty and corrupt as it is, at least succeeds at some of its main goals.

I’ve always wanted Copyright to go away, but it’s going away in a way different than anything I’d imagined and I don’t know what to think about that.

It’s interesting seeing all the people who used to complain about copyright now realizing that copyright does in fact protect small artists, and it’s actually the reason why anyone was able to make a living as an artist at all.

On the one hand, it’s good that everyone is starting to get on the same page, but it sucks that things always have to get worse before they get better. This is a good opportunity to perform some introspection and think about what kind of mistakes led you to the wrong conclusion on this issue. Maybe it’ll be constructive and helpful for other issues.