I just don't see what this bitching is all about.
Even if GOG used a scene crack to pass the drm of the game, so what? Why would anyone who buys games from GOG feel bad about it?
FFS, it's not llike that most if not all of the games sold here can't be found in non legal ways. We still buy them. GOG goes through a certain procedure to get the games and sell them to us, legally and working under modern systems. That's the main reason we buy games from here. We feel good buying games, we feel good getting them legally.
If a scene crack was used, why the drama? Who actually gives a shit about it? Now, if they had used the crack and sold the game without acquiring the rights to sell the games from whoever has the rights, I can see the problem. Then you would have someone using warez versions and selling them to suckers while keeping 100% of the profit, plus the whole thing being illegal.
That's not the case though, so....who cares?
As for scene members, or better yet, members of groups there, complaining and seriously asking for acknowledgment, I doubt any one would do that seriously. Perhaps jokingly would, but to be serious about it, he/she would have to be idiot of the first degree. BUT, to be member of such group and have the skills to do what they do (the serious groups not the joke ones), you can't be an idiot.
Seriously, just bury this non subject.

Sure, but the analogue would only be true if gamestop had permission from the copyright owner to do so.

yeah. the codex totally hates gog. that's why some of the oldest gog members are codexers and the codex has a gog purchase link. feel the hate.

But then you run into the problem of "Who 'deserves' to own the copyright?". And when we get into that, legality is a lot less important.
IW signed a contract that didn't give them the royalties they wanted. Most gamers seem to side with IW, against the contract.
Bethesda legally owns the rights to Fallout now. But a lot of people still feel that it is wrong.
Activision got the rights to some game whose name I forget. A fan-made game based on that IP was given the a-okay by the original-ish copyright holders, but killed by Activision.
If you just go purely by the legality of it, GoG is in the win and RPG Codex are pirates. But once you start considering people's own personal moralities and what they feel is right and wrong, things get murky.
Same thing with the Steam issues. EA doesn't want to have Steam sell games in Japan or something, and Ubi doesn't want Steam to sell games in the UK. If we were to go fully legal and what not, Steam would be innocent. But the interpretation of events is painted by other events (the infamous $=squiggle moneys thing that pisses off all the people with squiggle moneys that aren't on my keyboard :p), it becomes a lot less cut and dry.
I am not saying I agree with Codeex. I think they are a bunch of whiny pirates. Plus, I have never really liked any of the RPG-oriented sites (too elitest). But I can also see where there animosity stems from, and it is not like our reactions are going to make this animosity go away.

Quote me where I said ALL Codex members hate GOG.

(In sing-song voice)
*The wheels on the debate go round and round,*
*Round and round,*
*Round and round,*
*all day long.*
Seriously, this debate has come full circle about 3-4 times, with almost nothing but unanimous consensus, and yet you still carry on. This is a non issue, and nothing anyone says either here or at RPG codex will change that, so please drop this.

you said full of, which has the meaning of a significant majority, and is in fact far from the truth.

RPG Watch is a relatively new site; it is run by former staff of RPG Dot, a site which you may have heard of. RPG Dot died shortly after the staff exodus.

I loved RPGDot....it was like heaven for me ...all that juicy RPG info cataloged and filed properly...it was like a dream library...
RIP RPGDOT!!!

This sums up my feelings perfectly.
There's no real evidence that GOG used anyone's work. Case closed?

And I would say that IMDB is full of wannabe writers and directors who KNOW they can do better than anyone in the industry. They are of course wrong and in fact write the worst fanwank it has been my misfortune to read. Nevertheless IMDB does have some decent posters and you can have a decent conversation there.

Ah RPGDOT. I'd almost forgotten about this, I visited it back in the day too. Good times.

I think it's funny that people on rpgcodex whine about "ownership" and using the work of crackers without crediting the work, as if cracking games for the purpose of mass piracy was worthy of such respect.
Why should pirates be rewarded with credit for working to crack a game when the very act of cracking the game is a complete insult to the work put into designing the game by the developers?

Programmers?
GoG doesn't modify any game code to make them work the shambles release that is interstate 76 pretty much hammers that point home. All the games here either work already on the supported OS or are helped by readily available emulators or wrappers.

Pirates aren't the ones who make cracks. Pirates rip off crackers and gamedevs alike.
I buy my games. I crack my games. The cracks I've used usually come with a message praising the makers of the game and telling you to buy the game and support them.