Quote Originally Posted by Nwb View Post
Then how do big offline game companies protect their source code? And even online games can't rely on the internet so much can they?
It might be instructive to read the wikipedia page on decompilers. There are numerous challenges to doing it with any sort of positive outcome. The code that will be spit out is not a thoughtfully structured program in the slightest. It isn't much better than assembly code.

I won't say bad things can't happen this way, but it's just the sort of ridiculous thing that you can't as an individual really worry about. If closed source does get out, then you (probably - IANAL) have legal avenues to pursue. The law is on the company's side here. It's what end user agreements, laws for copyright, laws against cyber crimes, and so on are for.