In this case the server was started way passing the closure of konami servers, it was basically studying how the game client sends packets to the server and trying to figure out what the game expect, if we're talking of proper hacking konami to get their server code or software for the server, then thats another story, this is pretty similar to those first emulators of PSX that were created back in the 90. In fact, PES5 and 6 servers were created by doing actual reversing over the running servers before their shutdown, that's actually more critical, but in this case there was no packet capture of konami servers, however yes from their client (the game itself) it's pretty far away from piracy
In Ireland and the UK we have a saying "Loose lips sink ships". In PESBUL's progress reports posted here on EvoWeb, I think Konami can see he disassembled their exe and reversed their packet handlers. So that's just as bad as reversing their packets
i dont think its a good idea to leave the progress reports on the forum. He should delete them i think to protect himself.
Code:
https://evoweb.uk/threads/pes-2021-private-server-online-emulator-open-alpha-test-server.106068/#post-4280503
To be safe from being sued, he needed to follow strict clean room design. In the emulation scene, the way this usually plays out is that the dirty work of looking at the packets and Ghidra code is kept completely separate. Someone does the analysis and just drops a manual on the internet anonymously explaining how the server/exe works.
If it had been done that way PESBul could have just used that manual which nobody knows who made.......... and claimed he never looked at the packets or packet handlers in the disassembly himself when doing the server implementation
Then he would have been safe from being sued. Now if he tries to monetise the project via advertisements or paywalling (or what is being done right now - collecting donations and having official publicity partners to create a valuable asset that can be sold off later) it's risky. Doing the reversing out and implementation in the open on one account just ruins that defense and puts the project at risk.
The PES6 and PES5 servers actually have much better legal standing Marc
Reddwarf and me did the work of mapping the protocol out.... mostly it was Reddwarf who was also teaching me how to do some reverse engineering..... We passed this information over to Juce when Jue contacted Reddwarf.
Juce wanted to program an implementation in python for a private russian server.
One of Red's emails to me
This is what Reddwarf relayed to me about Juce's request [Click to enlarge + Private parts blacked out]
So Juce had no idea how Reddwarf and me did the reversing of the protocol. It may have been dirty or clean.
Then Juce coded and released his implementation. So Juce legally did nothing wrong and is safe i would guess
I got more things working later in fiveserver and code the Friendlist , Sending friends messages, the message inbox, the beep beep when you get a message from a friend, the blocklist, about half of the competition protocol, the news notifications when you log in, the emojis etc some of which is now used on the PES6.es server today and im credited as "Enda" on their server information messages.
I did it clean, without looking at packets or doing a disassembly of the packet handlers. So the first part (the reversal of the protocol) can be done clean just interacting with the game using your USB gamepad and coding and working things out that way.... not using tools to reverse the games code or packets which I didn't have. Its a grind and it takes 100 times longer.
Anyway this means Juce has done a clean room implementation and nobody can sue Juce.
I don't think anybody can sue or shut down the pes5 and pes6 servers.
The work was separated out between many people and nobody in the community knows if that protocol reversing work was done dirty or clean (except me )
So anyway Konami.... they possibly have someone monitoring (and even caching) all of evoweb ... for insights on how they are doing or for future lawsuits who knows.
PESBUL writing the following things publicly is certainly risky........
Code:
Every layer has been recovered from the executable through static analysis:
Code:
Confirmed by successful decryption of captured client frames
Along with all the little details....
AI agents have lowered the bar for reverse engineering. Someone intelligent can prompt the AI: "Analyze this executable. Find the login state machine and decode the cryptography" etc and work from there very hard, bringing almost any game back online (with a lot of intelligence to work through the problems with the AI and hard work). We already see 2 other guys this week working on PES 2013 servers here and another group getting FIFA 2014 and 2017 FUT servers working.
AAA companies won't tolerate this. You can't rely on their past leniency. AI reviving a decade of old PES and FIFA titles with thousands of active players becomes a massive threat to Konami's Dream Team and EA's Ultimate Team profits. So expect EA to start suing first and Konami copying them. If anyone is using agents to build servers, remember you must follow strict clean room design to protect yourself ....... or reboot your project cleanly if you already started and throw away the tainted code and genuinely start over from scratch with two separated teams
