Legality of TPU Hosting DLSS DLLs

[Caring1]

While you are absolutely right in your interpretation of this agreement. Neither this DLL nor the games they came from have this license agreement to accompany with them. This Agreement that you quote, is for those who chose specifically to use nVidia SDK, which I dont think is the case here. Furthermore, Techpowerup didn't agree to any of those terms anywhere in the process of receiving this file, because they weren't extracted from SDK.

What?
is that like driving without a license you don't have to abide by the road rules?
Oh and the car is hot but that doesn't count either cos you didn't steal it yourself, your just driving it?

 

[zlobby]

Duh! Exactly. Let no good deed go unpunished.

Don' get me wrong. If anyone hates nvidia the most, that would be me. Here comes the 'but'... But nvidia stated the rules clearly and explicitly, love it or hate it.

In modern world people serve more time in the pen for copyright infringement than DUI or even homicide!

For as long as any company is pushing openness and fair play, they will have my money.

 

[LAN_deRf_HA]

I don't want @W1zzard getting grief

You are the grief.

 

[net2007]

Soy boys rated R

 

[wolf]

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

I think this is probably one of the bigger points of merit, this is essentially free press for NVIDIA, it's getting people talking about their tech, in a positive way, people are genuinely excited about this stuff to get the best out of DLSS.

NVIDIA wants all the DLSS hype they can get, and this plays right into their hands, plus, for all the extra visibility, it might even have game dev's testing and updating games to the newer/better DLL files.

Could it be technically wrong? seems quite possibly it is. Will they care? I bloody well doubt it, at least not in a negative way.

 

[InVasMani]

Nvidia won't care long as it stays proprietary and can be segemented into supported DLSS versions they don't care much like Microsoft with Direct X with Windows. It's all about that jail cell they confine you too and lock you within.

 

[Richards]

Don' get me wrong. If anyone hates nvidia the most, that would be me. Here comes the 'but'... But nvidia stated the rules clearly and explicitly, love it or hate it.

In modern world people serve more time in the pen for copyright infringement than DUI or even homicide!

For as long as any company is pushing openness and fair play, they will have my money.

We dnot care stop stealing

That's not how the world works. Warning a bussiness about a potential legal misstep is not what you do if your goal is grief.

Its good we d'not want thiefs and pirates reputation for the site

 

[R-T-B]

Its good we d'not want thiefs and pirates reputation for the site

I really think you need to draw a line between this and blatant piracy, even if legally it's the same, ethically it's not. It's literally the same as TPU's VBIOS database in that line of thought.

That ship sailed long ago if we're worried about such things.

 

[wolf]

It's all about that jail cell they confine you too and lock you within.

I'm not sure I follow, owning a DLSS capable card and playing DLSS games today, locks me into needing an Nvidia card for any future replacements?

 

[bobsled]

That's not how the world works. Warning a bussiness about a potential legal misstep is not what you do if your goal is grief.

I fail to see how notifying Nvidia is warning TPU against a potential misstep.

 

[R-T-B]

I fail to see how notifying Nvidia is warning TPU against a potential misstep.

He is notifying w1zzard? Where did he ever say he was notifying nvidia?

Edit: ...and for what it's worth, I have notified nVidia. I'll let them figure it out. They'll either take action or they won't, but if it were my software and people were in violation of the license, I'd be pretty pissed.

Ah, nvm. I missed this.

 

[R-T-B]

aquinus must be having a bad day,

I mean, I kinda get it. I'm a failed software developer, but I still understand the sentiment that EULAs matter.

I just don't really care if nvidia doesn't, is what it boils down to. But for many, it comes down to a matter of principles... and that is the core disagreement here.

 

[zlobby]

Fold the water hoses, Jose. Nvidia will soon catch wind of what's happening here and we'll know their verdict before the hammer falls.

I hope nvidia play it like gentlemen for once and keep it civil with TPU.

 

[Dredi]

I mean, I kinda get it. I'm a failed software developer, but I still understand the sentiment that EULAs matter.

I just don't really care if nvidia doesn't, is what it boils down to. But for many, it comes down to a matter of principles... and that is the core disagreement here.

Yup. Also, if nvidia does not care, they should just strip the licence. Otherwise TPU is in a bad spot where they know they are doing something illegal, but are ”permitted” to do it in a strictly non binding manner, which for a typical company would be something to avoid like the plague. At least TPU isn’t doing anything with the DLL’s nor are they asking money for the distribution (oh, wait, the download page has ads - and thus TPU is generating income via copyright infringement. Let’s hope that TPU never writes a bad review of any nvidia products ).

nvidia as a company is not beyond petty tactics when it comes to how its products are represented in the media and I would not give them any attack vectors voluntarily. In order to prevent this, it would be best to just ask nvidia if this is OK or not. You TPU people have some contacts you can definitely use in this. @W1zzard et al.

 

[OmniaMorsAequat]

You're redistributing DLLs produced by nVidia. I don't see the difference. nVidia forces developers to agree to some terms before making the DLLs available.

Also, their license specifically says:

https://developer.nvidia.com/gameworks/nvidia_rtx_sdks_license_12apr2021.pdf

You're also not shipping it with an application.

Case and point:


I hate to say it, but this is a blatant violation of nVidia's terms.

We remind you that we are on a site where, before publishing certain contents, the manager undertakes to find out if this file can be published or not, if you are used to run on scam and hack sites, here in the case of techpowerup you do not have to worry, I remind you that we do not live in a jungle and as such any content posted on the site is legally verified before its publication at unless, as written before, they are not scam/hack sites etc. in that case the situation would be different, let's avoid creating useless flames just to give attention and move waters that have nothing moved.

 

[stimpy88]

That's not how the world works. Warning a bussiness about a potential legal misstep is not what you do if your goal is grief.

That's one thing, but informing lawyers is quite another. Too many power happy tripsters with an inflated sense of their own opinions here.

Half of this forum could have sent a private DM or email to the owners or admin of this site, to air their concerns, instead of publically engaging in virtue signalling ego inflating competitions.

 

[Dredi]

Nvidia would be playing with fire by going after TMU over this matter and I'm pretty certain their fully aware of it. Worst case what is Nvidia going to do send them a cease and desist and TPU writes a article about it and maybe or maybe not holds a bit of a grudge and even if TPU doesn't directly many in the tech world certainly might have a fair degree of resentment towards Nvidia on the matter.

Nvidia could very well do this in a manner where any public debate would cost TPU dearly. Would it slightly tarnish nvidias public image? Sure. Would it matter to them in any meaningful monetary way? No.
edit: where is TPU registered? Depending on location the possibilities nvidia has for ransoming are vastly different.

@W1zzard has a contact at nvidia from which to ask permission for this. If your other points are valid, they will say yes and sponsor some content while at it.

 

[Mussels]

TPU has nothing to lose except being asked to not host the files any longer

This is a very weird, inflated problem.

 

[Dredi]

TPU has nothing to lose except being asked to not host the files any longer

This is a very weird, inflated problem.

Because when you distribute pirated software, you are always just asked nicely to stop and no other reprecussions ever apply. Nvidia will _probably_ just ask nicely, but that is an assumption and not a fact.

 

[Mussels]

Because when you distribute pirated software, you are always just asked nicely to stop and no other reprecussions ever apply. Nvidia will _probably_ just ask nicely, but that is an assumption and not a fact.

But its not pirated?

No code was modified, nothing was cracked, hacked, decompiled, reverse engineered or altered.
This is as dangerous as TPU hosting the Nvidia driver packages, because they arent from nvidias site either...

 

[stimpy88]

Because when you distribute pirated software, you are always just asked nicely to stop and no other reprecussions ever apply. Nvidia will _probably_ just ask nicely, but that is an assumption and not a fact.

So your flat out calling the admins of TPU Pirates now? Exactly why are you still here then? Are you just here to snitch on activities here to nVidias lawyers, hoping to get the golden RTX4090Ti from them in return, like a few others in this thread seem to be hoping for?

Do me a favour, put your tears into an email, and send it to the admin of this site, and let them deal with their own business. Why the need to virtue signal so much? What are you compensating for?

 

[InVasMani]

I mean if this is piracy
https://www.dll-files.com
is in a world of trouble...

 

[Dredi]

But its not pirated?

No code was modified, nothing was cracked, hacked, decompiled, reverse engineered or altered.
This is as dangerous as TPU hosting the Nvidia driver packages, because they arent from nvidias site either...

It’s not piracy if you host games that doesn’t require cracking, hacking or decompilation to be played? Licence wise it is the same thing.

If the licence for downloading driver does not explicitly tell you not to redistribute it, then it’s fine.

Exactly why are you still here then?

I’m just discussing this here, because the topic of software copyright is interesting to me. Why are you here?

I’m not virtue signaling anything.

I mean if this is piracy
https://www.dll-files.com
is in a world of trouble...

Do they host the files in question?
Anyway, I’m not interested in what other sites are doing, I’m pretty sure there are a bunch of places in the internetz where someone does something that is not strictly legal. That isn’t news to me and hopefully neither for you.

 

[InVasMani]

It’s not piracy if you host games that doesn’t require cracking, hacking or decompilation to be played? Licence wise it is the same thing.

If the licence for downloading driver does not explicitly tell you not to redistribute it, then it’s fine.


I’m just discussing this here, because the topic of software copyright is interesting to me. Why are you here?

I’m not virtue signaling anything.



Do they host the files in question?
Anyway, I’m not interested in what other sites are doing, I’m pretty sure there are a bunch of places in the internetz where someone does something that is not strictly legal. That isn’t news to me and hopefully neither for you.

As far as the question goes I haven't checked, but I wouldn't doubt it. They have a lot pirated DLL's since 1998 and 2.5 million downloads a month.

 

[Mussels]

I googled it. Very hard. Was almost two entire sentences of reading.

Digital piracy is when you counter any measures meant to prevent unauthorised copying or distribution of a digital file.
What anti-copying measure was used and defeated here?