ARE GAME CRACKS ILLEGAL?

[ffinder]

My opinion is:

No, i crack CD games for two good reasons:

1-I want a copy of the original CD in case
it gets damaged by accident (why should i buy anotherone)

2-i like to have my CDROM drive free (not tied up to a game CD)
Now to get those cracks you might fall on nasty websites

ffinder

 

[ffinder]

?

 

[TerabyTe]

I don't know if they're illegal or not, but if you really want one just search for it on Google or something.

 

[Jeremiah the Bullfrog]

I don't know. I don't believe they are if you own a copy of the game. Don't quote me on that though.

 

[Roo6339]

it should be legal if you own the original, like burning a copy for yourself.

 

[Felron]

Its Illegal regardless if you own it or not. But, does it matter? You own the game, you shouldn't have to pay for 2 copies.

Meh, I don't even own the games and I don't care.

 

[Dracil]

I think the way it works is like this.

It's illegal.

It's also illegal for them to prevent you from making a backup copy.

So... *shrug* I make CD images on my hard drive.

 

[CHR15T05]

That is the ONLY good thing to come from Valves peice of "we rule the world" software; STEAM.

Once you have set up your Steam Profile, THEY know what games you have paid for. (Valve games that is).

So even if you're half life CD goes belly up, it doesn't matter. Log into your steam account and download the games you have paid for.

Of course if you have dail up, even this is not a good point and so Steam remains in my "what a peice of steaming......" book. (and I have ADSL).

As for cracks, I would agree that backing up SHOULD be legal, TOTALLY. However downloading cracks does put you at risk of porn pop-ups, add ware, and/or virus's simple because to get them you are forced into the "underground" of the internet.

Unfortuanatly, if the games producers made the disks easy to copy, the industry would have an even harder battle against priracy which is a shame.

The person that said "meh, I dont even own the games" is not alone, but ask yourself this. Would you walk into a shop, pick the game off the shelf, and walk out without paying? Pirating games by burning them at home and downloading a crack is EXACTLY the same! It's stealing.

It was hard, but I did recently bin all my copied games.

You know how at the end of a game there is a really impressive credits list with loads and loads of people involved? Call them selfish, but they kind of like getting paid for the great job they do. MEH?

Anyway, all that said, your question can only be answered by researching the LAW in your country.

If you are asking "is it legal" then anything that is "opinion" isn't worth anything.

If you are asking "is it morally acceptable?" then that is diferent.

 

[LuckyCharm]

If you buy a cassette and leave it in the sun, and it melts, should you be entitled to a free replacement? What about if you spill coffee on your keyboard -- should you be entitled to a free replacement?

Or should everything you buy come in twos automatically, just in case you break one?

That would, of course, drive up the price of everything -- which I'm sure the original poster would object to.

How about let's grow up, and stop whining about whether or not it's right to copy CD's? We know what the law says -- that ought to be enough, at least as far as it relates to this subject!

~~Cheryl

 

[seebs]

Actually, it's not entirely clear what the law says. The general consensus is that you're entitled to make a copy or two for personal use.

In my case, I run most of my games either off of CD images, or with full install and a crack, or both. I do this because I have about 15 games installed on my laptop, and actually running the CD-ROM drive cuts a big chunk out of my battery life. I last pirated a game in 1989 or 1990, and at the time, I justified it on the grounds that the company in question had produced a game, which I had bought, which I was unable to run specifically because of their copy protection scheme. In retrospect, I don't think this was much of a justification. But I don't see any reason not to use disk images to run CD-based games off the local drive, and suppress annoying and intrusive copy protection schemes.

 

[Dracil]

Would you walk into a shop, pick the game off the shelf, and walk out without paying? Pirating games by burning them at home and downloading a crack is EXACTLY the same! It's stealing.

Actually, the law, AND the Supreme Court has ruled it's NOT the same. It is copyright infringement, and is NOT stealing. Pirating games is like going into a book store, copying down the pages of a book, and then leaving. It's called copyright (i.e. the right to copy) infringement for a reason.

 

[CHR15T05]

...and unless you are the owner of the copyright license... you are stealing.

 

[Dracil]

No... by law, you are infringing on another person's copyright. It is more like violating a person's monopoly on a product. It is *only* stealing when you physically (keyword there) take the actual product.

Don't like the definition? Take it up with the courts.

 

[t3hs0x]

Well... No-CD cracks are NOT illegal if you own the original copy.. Although many people abuse this.. Games need the orginal CD to play sometimes.. And u should see the condition of my SC: BW cd.. half of it was scratched.. And u could almost see through it.. But the other cracks, to play the game is illegal..

 

[Dark_Lite]

That is the ONLY good thing to come from Valves peice of "we rule the world" software; STEAM.

Once you have set up your Steam Profile, THEY know what games you have paid for. (Valve games that is).

So even if you're half life CD goes belly up, it doesn't matter. Log into your steam account and download the games you have paid for.

Of course if you have dail up, even this is not a good point and so Steam remains in my "what a peice of steaming......" book. (and I have ADSL).

As for cracks, I would agree that backing up SHOULD be legal, TOTALLY. However downloading cracks does put you at risk of porn pop-ups, add ware, and/or virus's simple because to get them you are forced into the "underground" of the internet.

Unfortuanatly, if the games producers made the disks easy to copy, the industry would have an even harder battle against priracy which is a shame.

The person that said "meh, I dont even own the games" is not alone, but ask yourself this. Would you walk into a shop, pick the game off the shelf, and walk out without paying? Pirating games by burning them at home and downloading a crack is EXACTLY the same! It's stealing.

It was hard, but I did recently bin all my copied games.

You know how at the end of a game there is a really impressive credits list with loads and loads of people involved? Call them selfish, but they kind of like getting paid for the great job they do. MEH?

Anyway, all that said, your question can only be answered by researching the LAW in your country.

If you are asking "is it legal" then anything that is "opinion" isn't worth anything.

If you are asking "is it morally acceptable?" then that is diferent.

Yes. This is Valve's sole intention in life. They want to take over the world.