You bought a license to play them, so installing them from a file or from an optical disc makes no difference. As long as the content you are downloading is the same as what's on the disc, I would not consider it piracy.
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You read my mind :)
If I compare it to windows it is actually legal. (according to my certification lessons) In the case of windows you actually buy a per user or per computer license. The source of the installation actually doesn't mater, as long as it's the same version.
This isn't windows ofcourse. If it's legal or not depends on their own terms and conditions and possibly your countries law.
But from my point of view it isn't piracy and ethicly perfectly fine. You paid for it right, so the game company should be glad you did so.
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- Well, not really but I don't do it myself.
- I'm sure they won't give you a key.
And what compatibility issues if I may ask?
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I can't connect it to my new motherboard, because it uses an older cable type for connection.
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Do you have any old external hard drives or enclosures around?
I cannibalized some old external PATA/IDE->USB2 enclosures to use some old DVD-RW drives externally.
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I strongly recommend that you get an usb adapter for your dvd drive, if you still have it. Even if
if you can download a unmodified version of your games from some pirate site and use them
with your geniune keys, it's still very handy to have a dvd drive just in case. Those usb adapters
come in all shapes and sizes (with case or just the adapter) and they're really cheap (like 5 bucks
or so). It's really nice on a computer that has no internal dvd drive.
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I don't know about hardware prices in the EU, but portable (i.e. USB-connected) DVD drives aren't that expensive in my experience.
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the first option is not piracy. Piracy is when you download the game and then apply a crack to it.
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But if Roloca has protected games with media checks (Safedisc, SecuROM, Starforce) then a crack may be needed regardless of a valid serial. Windows 10 also breaks compatibility with these protections.
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Not true, in many countries allow you to do what you want to the software as long as you own it and don't share the changes with anyone. Piracy is downloading non free software to which you do not own a license in any form.
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but he owns the licences. He has the cd keys, just not the install medium. Most games you download from torrents are usually clean until you appply a crack. I have never downloaded a game with crack already included
EDIT: whoops. Okay. Now you know my little secret
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I was saying that cracking a game is not piracy in most countries, as long as you don't acquire an already cracked version. This would be independent of it's a download version or his retail version.
Downloading from torrent however would be illegal since you share automatically with other during download. Distributing is illegal almost everywhere.
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be careful, even old cd/dvd games were released in different lots as the games were patched, some devs set things up where a valid key will work on any version of their game, some set it up so it only works with a specific lot. there is some serious malware/viruses out there if it thinks you aren't a legit user.
Also note a few devs would consider it piracy if they are the type that considers every patch or bug fix to be a new product; Metro v Merto Redux would be a handy example.
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You can download any GOG game from any torrent site because they don't have any DRM , no need to crack it. It's still piracy. Just pointing out that not the cracking part is the problematic.
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You own it, so it's alright. I think it's even legal to some degree as it would count as a backup copy of your purchased game.
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Technically it's not a backup though. It's another copy of the game. And Roloca doesn't own that copy of the game. So yeah, it's piracy.
At this point you just have to discuss the ethics of piracy in certain circumstances, like this one or the idea of pirating a game you have no legitimate means of getting otherwise.
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That argument is similar to what I meant when I said
pirating a game you have no legitimate means of getting otherwise.
Technically speaking, a backup is usually made by copying your existing files, not finding identical files online. Downloading any identical files downloaded online would still be considered piracy. However, Roloca is planning to use their own key to make the game run so that complicates things. You could argue that by using a key you own, you already own the right to play that copy of the game, regardless of where the files came from. You could also argue that downloading a game's files online is piracy. It's a difficult topic.
Simply deleting the extra programs will not make it better. You don't rob a bank that you have an account in, take only money equal to what was in your account and say that you're just making a withdrawal. Sure, you're only taking what's yours, but your method is still illegal.
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The law says it's piracy.
Fuck the law.
But oddly, you have made the choice not to have an optical drive. I don't know what sort of "compatibility" issues you may have with what I presume to be a desktop, but the reason I don't have an optical drive since the late fall is because my last optical drive was still PATA and my new board has no PATA ports. But if I needed a drive, that's not even two sawbucks to snag one. I just don't want one anymore.
But it seems like you could have an optical drive if you want.
Anyway, I don't begrudge you choosing either of those options. Though since you are considering trying to see if they will give you a key that is probably the best option to go with. If they deny you, then do what you gotta do.
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In most countries it's perfectly legal to download a copy of the game as long as you own a license and don't share it to anyone else (i.e. torrent would not be legal since you automatically share during download).
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Precisely. See below to the more nuanced point velocity37 teased out of me.
The law varies, but as you say it's not always straightforward legally acquiring through unofficial means that which others are acquiring illegally.
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Torrent is a merely software for downloading files. Torrent is legal because it doesn't have to be used for piracy. It can be used to share files that are completely free and legal to download.
It's similar to how Youtube has copyrighted music without the musician's permission on it. It doesn't mean we make Youtube illegal.
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So? Downloading the game using torrent is illegal, if you're going to comment please read what I write. Never said torrent itself was illegal. Torrent is a technology not a software. Software implements the technology and nor the technology nor the software is illegal in itself. It's illegal because almost all implementations of the technology will automatically share it, i.e. he'd be distributing.
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Never said torrent itself was illegal
Neither did I
To quote you: "if you're going to comment please read what I write"
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No, but you heavily implied that I was saying it was, if that's not what you where implying your comment makes no sense.
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I have reread your comment multiple times. Yup, I misunderstood what you were saying, causing my comment to appear out of context. My apologies.
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actually, that's not what the law says.
As has been mentioned elsewhere, (and note that this does vary from country to country), if you own the game it's not illegal to download. Hell, in some countries even if you don't own the game it's not illegal to download, only to upload.
But that brings up an important point. Downloading the file is (in most jurisdictions) legal, because he owns a copy. But, using a torrent is illegal, because torrents are two-way, and include an upload component.
Also, circumventing DRM is, by itself, illegal in certain jurisdictions (e.g. U.S.A.)
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Yes, the upload part is a problem. If he only downloaded, then it would be ok. But since downloading torrents makes you also upload, then that would be theoretically illegal since you're also sharing the files.
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Yes. I reduced a complex issue to a glib condemnation. I did so because the right to acquire a copy of previously purchased media is variable, sometimes vague, and most assuredly not absolute.
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its not.
but in your case i would have tried the support first as it is a great game :-P
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I don't think it's piracy if you bought them already.
For example, I own some music CDs and I want to listen them on my phone as mp3 files. I don't start searching for the CD, put it in my drive then convert it to mp3 myself. I just torrent the album and it takes less time.
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For people saying it's legal to have backups, it's not necessarily legal to download a random unofficial copy, nor is it necessarily legal to circumvent DRM--even DRM that denies you your right to make a backup of media. It's not necessarily a cut-and-dry issue, but saying it's legal because we have the right to backups (infringed upon by more recent legislation and probably only half-settled in various court cases) doesn't necessarily make every action utilized to pursue a copy of media we have paid for legitimate.
For instance, if Rocola was somehow in court over this specific issue s/he would have to certainly at minimum demonstrate undue burden or an impediment in installing and playing the game from the disc he still has that is readable. I don't think his/her excuse about not having an optical drive at all would be persuasive.
Edit: Asterisks because nuance refinement matters.
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nor is it legal to circumvent DRM
That would be the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of the United States. The OP lives in Hungary.
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So it's legal to circumvent DRM in the EU? The more you know.
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It depends. EU law says its member states may make exceptions for private, non-commercial use. This is wildly different from the United States where specific use cases have to be explicitly ruled as exempt from the DMCA.
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I was being sarcastic. I know that the EU is much more lax regarding exemptions. My point was that the rights accorded to us, which of course vary by locale, are not absolute and the "you already bought it so it isn't piracy" defense can't just be broadly applied for the most part.
My point lacked nuance, however, and our delicious back and forth has shed light on that.
But I like the cut of your jib. <3
P.S. What anime is your avatar from?
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Haha, it's Brock from Pokemon shopped over Barack Obama (thus Brock Obama).
It's inevitable that these things come up when you ask an international userbase a question about law. Just trying my best to remind people that we aren't the world police :)
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I knew I recognized that guy. Pokemon was a little after my time but I watched it some anyway.
And our police would shoot too many unarmed civilians.
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I seriously doubt OP is gonna end up in court about this. This isn't so much a discussion of whether it's legal as a discussion of whether it's ethical.
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I seriously doubt he's going to be in court too. But since my point was about the law, I speculated about it.
And this is a discussion both of the legal and ethical aspects of "piracy". That's why there are 30 instances of the word "legal" on this page.
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you could always pickup an external drive but it's a grey area it should be okay really but those big companies have greed in their eyes
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That isn't piracy, you bought the game and you are downloading the same game.
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Legally, piracy includes using backups of other people copies when you own a game. You can legally back up your own copies, but another user's copy doesn't apply.
Mind you, different regions have different laws, so our information might not even be correct for you.
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Well I'm going to go out on a limb and say that I'd loosely consider it piracy. Why? Well these days we don't buy games but licences to play games....so when you bought the disc based retail version you bought the license for that version. If the key you have doesn't work on Steam or Origin then that's where your entitlement ends. (Kind of like when you buy a Bluray, or a Triple play thing which has DVD, Bluray AND digital download access...the Bluray is cheaper but has less options).
I'd say contact Origin support and ask for assistance (with supporting pics/evidence of the key you have and the disc). With any luck they'll come through.
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Physical versions give you more legal rights with first sale doctrine since you can't agree to a eula that's hidden in a box till you buy it, and since software is usually non-returnable the "return if you don't agree with the eula" argument holds no weight.
Today you would usually want a Steam or Gog copy because it is more likely to be patched.
On EA, Patron, Kickstarter, etc. if you are going to pay for the development of software you are better off putting your money into FSF, Linux, GPL type games and software
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actually, software has always been sold as a license to use the software, even when they came on physical media.
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As long as you install the game with your own license key instead of one from a keygenerator it can't be considered piracy. You're using the license you've been granted and got the proof for it too.
So if you can download an ISO to install from you're basically good to go.
On the other hand, if you have more stuff on disks that can"t be activated online, maybe it's worth investing in an external DVD reader; those aren't too expensive nowadays..
And finally asking Activision support if they can supply a steam-redeemable key is always worth a shot.
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At least where I am, it's perfectly legal to own a back-up of software, music, and movies you've already purchased.
How you acquire that back-up is the catch.
Most file-sharing software also uploads while you're downloading, and it's illegal to share software with those who haven't purchased it.
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I even don't consider other things being privacy: "pirate" games you cannot activate in a country or games that you can't buy. I also have an Italian Version of Wolfenstein 2009, wasn't able to buy it in English. And yes, I install an English version from an ISO. This isn't piracy at all.
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As long as your don't use the tampered .exe file that the pirate version comes with, no, it most certainly isn't piracy. Don't even bother asking "Hacktivision" to give you a Steam key for the game. They will NEVER do that, cause it's a major cunt-bag company.
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First you should of course try to ask for key, you are unlikely to get one, but you might be lucky.
Not sure about the specific laws in Hungary, but it's likely to be legal to download an untampered copy, from somewhere where you do not share any bits with someone else. However the easiest solution to be legally in the clear is most likely to arrange a backup iso from your own copy.
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legally it could be considered a grey area, depending on where you live. morally though I would say it is not piracy. you have already paid for the games and have the serial numbers, which are intended as a proof of purchase, which you intend to use with the version you download. it would be another matter if you had sold the games but intended to continue playing them
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It's not piracy as long as you own a legit copy/license. It's just a backup copy. It's a bit of a grey area how you acquire that copy and all that. But if you own a license, you can make copies for personal use.
IaNaL tho, so take everything with a pincht of salt.
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as a lawyer, I'm gonna say that you're absolutely correct - except that there's no grey area. How you acquire the copy will determine whether or not it's deemed piracy.
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Legally (I am not a lawyer), I'd say it depends heavily on where you live. Under some (possibly since changed) EU laws, it's illegal. In Canada, as far as I know, it's legal. In the US, I'm not really sure. I see from your Steam profile that you live in Hungary, so I'd suggest looking up laws regarding software backups in the EU generally and in Hungary specifically if you care about the legal side of it.
Morally, I'd say you're okay with option 1, so long as you take into account the possible consequences of getting caught and mitigate them; I'd say it's a poor choice to, for example, download it from Pirate Bay without use of a VPN or encryption by hacking into a police station's WiFi system, but with proper precautions and privacy choices, I'd say there's no moral issue as far as I'm concerned.
I'm very doubtful that option 2 will succeed, but if it does then there can really be no moral or legal issue regardless of where you live, I think.
Technologically though, I'd recommend either using a 5.25" drive bay enclosure to house your original dvd and connect to your computer via usb, or if you have an old computer lying around that has a dvd drive (or have a friend who has a machine with a dvd drive) then learn about the copy protection on that particular game to make sure this is possible, then rip it to an iso file and play it using DaemonTools (or similar). Again, I think there are some EU laws against this, but in the US I think the legal case is much clearer that this is then your own backup of a product you already owned.
Edit: Mind you, I'm someone who has bought 3 copies of Daggerfall so far when I could easily have "pirated" it as abandonware.
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There are an awful lot of lawyers in this thread.
Software piracy is generally the unauthorised copying, distribution of use of software. With software that came on physical media - there was often terms indicating that the software could only be installed from original media, and that the media and it's contents were owned by the developer/publisher and that the purchaser only had a right to use the software - in accordance with the terms of the software license.
Distributing or copying software via unauthorised (or illegal) methods - just because you have a license, does not change the fact you obtaining and using pirated software (the download is copied and distributed without authorisation of the copyright owner).
Consider this - If you had a receipt for a purchased movie DVD - but you lost the DVD 2 years later. You find a pirated copy of the movie at a market and buy it as a "replacement". You get caught with the pirated DVD and charged by the police. Will you be "let off" because you have the old receipt for the movie you purchased 2 years ago (because you argue - it's not like this movie was pirated - because I "had a license"?
Most software licenses are written in such a way that you may not do something, unless they specifically spell out what you may do. So unless the original license includes the right to get a pirate version in the future, then you can't do that.
You might disagree or decide to do it anyway, but this part doesn't really come down to opinion.
As for the second point - asking the dev or publisher for a valid key - well that takes care of the bit "Distributing or copying software via unauthorised methods" - because you are going via authorised channels. Therefore, not piracy.
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even though software is generally governed by the software license, where such license contradicts the law, the law overrides. This is very common with software for which the license was written in the U.S. and sold in Europe, as E.U. laws specifically permit some uses that are permitted to be restricted in the U.S.
The two areas where this is most likely to be an issue are Privacy and Back-ups.
<---- actual lawyer
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Of course, I can only generalise - and not cover alternatives for each country. I am answering "Is this piracy", Whether the same act is considered right or wrong in different countries I can't really say.
A country might be a signatory to the Berne convention If the country has passed laws to take precedence over this then that I suppose is a matter for that country. The terms of piracy are probably not defined only by the software license, but a more broad principle regarding the recognition of copyright law and the means of distributing and acquiring the software.
Downloading and using pirated software - doesn't really become legitimate purchased software because you previously had a license. The license was to use the authentic software supplied - and not the software obtained via pirate channels.
I'm not aware of Pirate sites being recognised as a legitimate way to backup purchased software. I think it would be fair to say that "backing up" from Pirate Bay is not the reason for it's existence. It is possible some countries could pass a law saying that this is a ok.
It is 4.00am right now - so what I just wrote probably makes no sense whatsoever. :)
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Don't forget, sometimes a local laws state different from license, and in this case it would have higher priority. For example in Russia it's allowed by law to reverse-engineer and patch software, if the only purpose of this is to make it correctly work on your hardware. Of course you can't distribute patched version. And in some countries law allows you to make backup copies of software, in this case "could only be installed from original media" term would not be considered legit.
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Your best bet would be asking the support for their help and hope for the best.
To point 1: it's hard to tell, since law would differ quite a bit, but it could be that it would probably alright as long as you make sure the copy you download was made legally and was uploaded legally. But since that's probably rare occasions where that happens (probably for old software that was made available to download from developer), it can be very likely illegal even if you habe a genuine key.
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UPDATE: Activision Support said that they can't provide keys, however I have found this: http://www.macgamestore.com/product/1718/Call-of-Duty-4-Modern-Warfare/ My problem is that it says it's for MAC. I think that since it's a Steam key, it won't be a MAC only version, because it doesn't have a MAC only release (like Cod Black Ops 1). Am I right?
Hey guys,
Recently I've been wondering if I have any retail games, which can be activated on Steam/Origin/etc. , so went through my game collection, and found quite a few: STALKER: Clear Sky, Mass Effect, Battlefield 2, The Saboteur, Medal of Honor Airborne,ArmA 2, Borderlands, then I stumbled upon Call of Duty (4): Modern Warfare. I know that some of its keys can be activated on Steam, but unfortunately my retail key doesn't belong to those. When I upgraded my rig, I had to get rid of the DVD reader because of compatibility issues, so I can't install it from disk
Now I have two options that I know of:
So my question is, do you consider the first option piracy? Technically I own the game, since I paid for it, have its retail box, its disc, but I don't have an optic drive to install and play it. Thanks for your help :)
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