Legality of TPU Hosting DLSS DLLs

[R0H1T]

So what's the verdict, did bean counters at Nvidia/JHH think it was worth their time to pursue TPU?

Not to mention some bad PR at that

 

[Soul_]

Have you never heard of SaaS? A lot of games give you access to use the game, not own it. Most game companies use this language these days.

Seriously, what's your problem? You're full of ad hominem and I don't get it.

Correct, SaaS is a service. Game that you download and play is not. SaaS service in this case would be EA Play, or whatever they are calling it these days. Not 'NFS Heat'.

Anyway, I am off this case. I think we have done enough damage for the day.

 

[Aquinus]

So what's the verdict, did bean counters at Nvidia/JHH think it was worth their time to pursue TPU?

Not to mention some bad PR at that

If they were to take action, I would expect it to take time because of the bureaucracy and I think that I wouldn't be the one getting an email back unless it was a "thank you for reaching out to us," which I have not yet received.

Correct, SaaS is a service. Game that you download and play is not. SaaS service in this case would be EA Play, or whatever they are calling it these days. Not 'NFS Heat'.

You should look at the EULAs for your games again because you don't understand how wrong you are about that. You are being granted limited and revocable access to the software by buying it. You're not buying the software with all of the rights attached to it. This is very common in the software space these days, even for software you run on your own machine. More often than not, if you're being shipped a binary, your rights to anything in it are practically zilch beyond using it as intended (as far as licensing is concerned.)

Either way, I've had my fun... and remember folks, licensing is important. Read the document if you're going to use it because you're basically agreeing to it, whether you like it or not.

 

[R0H1T]

I'm sure they can, if they wanted to, but if there's one thing trillion dollar companies hate probably more than paying taxes it's the (slightly) bad PR. JHH is a smart man, if he does want to pursue these tactics ~ well by all means.

 

[Aquinus]

I'm sure they can, if they wanted to, but if there's one thing trillion dollar companies hate probably more than paying taxes it's the (slightly) bad PR. JHH is a smart man, if he does want to pursue these tactics ~ well by all means.

Is it really bad PR for nVidia to be enforcing the license that they made for their software or for TPU if they're actually in violation of it? I don't know. I suspect that they'll sit back and watch, or if they do something, do it quietly. They're not going to come into this forum and announce it, that's for sure.

 

[R0H1T]

Risk vs reward, why did Nvidia sell the 970 without disclosing full specs at the time? Well they actually lied about the specs!

They're not going to come into this forum and announce it, that's for sure.

Sure, my point is they'd be smart not to go down this road ~ they have more than their fair share of fresh skeletons still rotting in there!

 

[TheoneandonlyMrK]

Regardless, if Nvidia act , TPU would act Soo I can't see any hurt.
The first time I came to the site was for tips and tricks to enhance my gaming experience via hard and soft mods non pirate I would add, that and gpuz and ATI tray tool, way back.
W1zzard has channels to Nvidia, and this just promotes Nvidia/dlss use at a time when Fsr just came out.

Let's just see what happens.

 

[Aquinus]

Regardless, if Nvidia act , TPU would act Soo I can't see any hurt.
The first time I came to the site was for tips and tricks to enhance my gaming experience via hard and soft mods non pirate I would add, that and gpuz and ATI tray tool, way back.
W1zzard has channels to Nvidia, and this just promotes Nvidia/dlss use at a time when Fsr just came out.

Let's just see what happens.

I'm not arguing anything about merit, just what the license says. I honestly don't care if nVidia acts or not, their license just makes it seem like they'd care. It's quite strict.

 

[TheoneandonlyMrK]

I'm not arguing anything about merit, just what the license says. I honestly don't care if nVidia acts or not, their license just makes it seem like they'd care. It's quite strict.

I get you, I will leave it to you all to figure out that, but if swapping a file in a game is some massive crime then some communities are fffd people mod game's legally and illegally all the time.
All such licence's are up to and solely the right of Nvidia to enforce or pursue and clearly they will act if it's in their interest to ,we agree there.
For me I truly respect game licence's and yet still would mod any part of a game to create a more graphically well presented game.
Not to cheat on any level, but to push the hardware I have as much as possible.
Or maybe add effects.
So obviously I am happy to see what's said by Nvidia.

 

[piotrj3]

When I don't think what techpowerup is fully legal there is few big issues in this case that makes license hard to enforce.

First issue is that this .dll can only be used practically in things that are already using DLSS and you replace it with another version of DLSS. Which means user copying those files move from one "compatible DLSS license" to another "compatible DLSS license", that wierd law problem is here no EULA can prevent you from literally deleting files of game (uninstall for example) and after creating a file.

2nd is that mod community exists and they don't fall to lawsuits despite them activly reverse engineering and modyfing game files, and here you don't even have to go that far. There are ways you can be prosecuted, eg. removing copyright protection or publishing reverse-engineered findings or infringing 3rd party copyright protection during moding but nothing quite occurs here.

3rd. Lawyer doing lawsuit against someone, need to estimate damage done. What harmful to Nvidia or any gaming company that provided such DLSS file has been done and how much worth it is (in $). .dll file on its own is useless and can only be used in places where user already obtained license for product already using DLSS. There is no damage, there is actually improvement and positive PR for Nvidia or other gaming companies here as it improves experience.

 

[R-T-B]

it really bad PR for nVidia to be enforcing the license that they made for their software or for TPU if they're actually in violation of it?

Honestly, both.

2nd is that mod community exists and they don't fall to lawsuits despite them activly reverse engineering and modyfing game files

Actually this has happened in the past... not common anymore because it's bad for PR.

 

[Aquinus]

Actually this has happened in the past... not common anymore because it's bad for PR.

I think they'd be more likely to just ask to have the license included with it and add some language to make the license applicable to those who download it. To me, that's 100% fair and is what I would expect to come out of it.

 

[ShiBDiB]

Pretty sure this falls in the grey area of "technically we could tell you to stop, but what you're doing isn't actually hurting us at all and telling you to stop would probably cause more harm than good" category. Probably best to leave it at that. If NVIDIA has an issue I'm sure wizz will get an email saying so, TPU is a known commodity so I'm sure they're well aware.

 

[Aquinus]

Pretty sure this falls in the grey area of "technically we could tell you to stop, but what you're doing isn't actually hurting us at all and telling you to stop would probably cause more harm than good" category. Probably best to leave it at that. If NVIDIA has an issue I'm sure wizz will get an email saying so, TPU is a known commodity so I'm sure they're well aware.

Totally. It's not like they're going to come out with guns blazing, that's for sure. Hell, if I were nVidia, I would just say "add a button saying you agree to this license and you can mirror our stuff all day long." The main issue is not agreeing to the license when you download it, at least in my perspective. Often they'll gather your information, then provide you with the libraries.

 

[Easy Rhino]

I don't get it. Why does anyone care what TPU hosts? If you don't like it you can certainly not visit the site?

 

[Aquinus]

I don't get it. Why does anyone care what TPU hosts? If you don't like it you can certainly not visit the site?

Because it's redistributing software without adhering to the license from which it came with.

 

[Deleted member 24505]

Been here a long time, and this is the weirdest thread i have read. Wow dummy out, trolls who survived Mussels wrath. I have had days rest for posting less than some of these posts here. I'm special though

 

[Devon68]

Wow three days later the discussion is going strong. I understand what Aquinus is trying to say, and I would be pissed is someone used my software without agreeing to the license, but in this case I will quote Dua Lipa's song and say IDGAF.
I'm just baffled as to why he (Aquinus) took it so personal.

 

[OneMoar]

controversy.exe has committed an access violation and will be terminated press any key to continue

 

[Deleted member 202104]

I'm just baffled as to why he (*******) took it so personal.

Because the population has been conditioned to take whatever rules are crammed down their throat by Corporate America, and have been programmed to support and defend their corporate masters like the good little tools they've become.

 

[outpt]

Lulz

 

[F7GOS]

I'd be very surprised if the sudden revelation of injecting newer DLSS DLLs into the veins of other titles wasn't the result of a wink wink nudge nudged and scrawled on a green post-it note procured from a certain leather jacket as soon as word about FSR being platform agnostic started to rumble.

Nothing will come of this as its exactly what Nvidia wants to happen.

 

[qubit]

@Aquinus From the looks of the rules that you've quoted, you're technically right, it's piracy on the high seas! However, in practice, I don't think it's a problem, because NVIDIA won't mind as it simply helps them to increase their market share that little bit with enthusiasts and shut AMD out. On top of that, from a user perspective, TPU is once again providing a cool service to help the community - thanks @W1zzard

This situation reminds me of all those cheap Windows and Office keys being sold everywhere. Sure, they're not strictly legit, despite the claims, but Microsoft knows that it helps them to keep that grip on marketshare, so they look the other way and even well established sites like TPU can advertise these sellers, like we see on here frequently, without fear of getting sued.

Finally, put it this way: if megacorps NVIDIA and Microsoft don't care, then why should we? The fact that it's technically a kind of soft piracy is rendered moot and merely a talking point.

@Aquinus I gave you a reasoned reply in the above post with some prudent points, so I think it deserves a reply and I'd like to see your rebuttal, assuming you disagree. Are you up to the challenge?

 

[Easy Rhino]

Because it's redistributing software without adhering to the license from which it came with.

That has never happened on the internet before. I am shocked.

 

[Mussels]

Been here a long time, and this is the weirdest thread i have read. Wow dummy out, trolls who survived Mussels wrath. I have had days rest for posting less than some of these posts here. I'm special though

Everyone has the right to question the legality of it, hence this threads existence.
It's the attitude that's come along with the questioning, oof.

I mean, we used to host modded GPU driver installers over a decade ago converting regular cards to quadro, nvidia didnt care.
TPU has NvCleanInstall, Nv doesnt care.
TPU has guides and articles about modding, overclocking, BIOS cross-flashing and so on... Nv doesnt care.



Heres .dll fixes for users with Phenom II CPU's and Core 2 CPU's for a variety of games, please contact all the game devs and AMD's and Intel's lawyers too, for fairness
Red dead redemption
No mans sky
Control
SkyrimSE
Cyberbug 2077
(I gave up here not because i ran out of examples, but because there are too many - this list would go on for dozens of entries)

This is not a new trend, with software modification for perfomance boosts in games by swapping DLL files and suddenly having a problem now over this one example only is... bizarre. If the DLL's were not used in the manner they were intended with compatible software, they wouldn't even start.