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Pirating games you own?
(infosec.pub)
I would say that's not pirating from an ethical perspective. If it's actually legal with current laws may be another story.
My viewpoint is I've paid for the right to play the game, where I get it from doesn't matter.
You hit the nail on the head. We really need more ethics and less laws in our lives (or the laws must be more ethical).
Piracy is effectively legal in Canada, for downloading. ISPs can't share your private details without a warrant from the courts, and the courts have rejected mass John Doe lawsuits to unmask users.
Plus, infringement for private use has a maximum penalty of $5000, but could easily be set by the first case creating court precedent at 3× the retail price of the pirated media (punitive damages are usually capped at 3× the value of the good, in Canada.)
That means that going to court would be incredibly expensive, could only target single individuals, and would likely set a precedent that they can only get $60 in damages for a $20 movie. Not going to happen.
So, piracy is effectively legal in Canada, for private use. Just don't be stupid and profit from piracy.
My understanding is that this is illegal under US law. It is, however, completely ethical.
Slavery used to be legal under US law. Breaking unjust laws is praxis and human
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On the other side of the spectrum: Older games that I own on CD-ROMs are much faster to pirate, download, and install than it would be to find the CD in the attic and then hunt for the USB CD Drive ;)
7gb inflated to nearly 40gb. That's absolutely absurd holy crap
I pirate Switch games that I already own on Steam because double dipping is stupid.
The only argument for piracy being bad is that it is stealing because they lost a sale they would have otherwise gotten. You already bought the game. Therefore, there is no lost sale. There's not a single moral argument against it now.
That being said, your ISP can't tell the difference, so make sure you use a VPN (especially if torrenting)
And that argument is BS anyway, because there's no such thing as "potential profit" even though companies say there is.
When I pirated the most games I had no money. If I didn't pirate it, I'd go play on the street or whatever lol. Not going to buy what you literally can't.
Same goes for denuvo and the "always online" for single player games crap. I'm not buying any games using those on principle.
I don't disagree, I only brought it up because it's the only argument that holds any merit (even if little) and is made irrelevant in this case.
I don't disagree, I brought it up just because it's the only argument against piracy that holds any merit at all )even if little) and is, in this case, completely irrelevant anyway.
People say use a vpn, but it seems to me like most vpns don't allow torrenting.
As far as I know ow most paid VPNs allow it, a lot of free ones don't. I can say from experience that Windscribe allows torrenting, although there is a 10gb limit per month on free accounts (there is a way to get around that tho)
Oh yea, I used to do that when games were on discs, because sometimes the discs were slightly borked, or that the DRM with the discs were really annoying.
Sometimes you can't even get them to run right on modern computers. Pirated versions usually have some sort of way of dealing with this, whereas the originals don't.
I hate capped internet accounts. As the dad, I'd have to police the kids especially not to blow the monthly cap, and eventually I switched to a lower bandwidth but unlimited option and there was finally peace in the family.
How much more did that cost? And did the kids notice the drop in bandwidth?
I don't remember it costing much more and the kids seemed relieved to not incur my wrath on a monthly basis. And not long after, my ISP increased the speeds on all accounts, so it more or less got us back to where we had been anyway.
Incidentally, if you've been with a particular ISP for years, it's worth talking to a person when you change your account. They may have some discretionary power to give you say an introductory rate on a better plan to reward your loyalty?
Really? Thank you for the in person tip. I'll try that the next time I go in.
its def not stupid, legit sources are super inconvenient, like i forget account passwords all the time, and steam makes sharing yr games for multiplayer really hard. way easier to just go download a cracked copy
I don't think there is any moral issue with pirating games that you have paid for. You paid the developers for their time. Now you want to use the product you paid for in a way that fits your needs.
It's effectively format shifting
I got a ton of games on CD from years past; but I got no disc drive on my computer anymore, so I just pirate them instead of buying them again on Steam or GOG unless they have something new to make it worth buying (like an engine port or new features or whatever).
If you have the codes with the cd you might be able to claim it on Steam. Doesn't always work but I'm told it works for some games.
I think the only game I have tried that with that worked has been Oblivion and Shivering Isles. Some of them are so old, they don't have any keys. Like Quake and Doom. But those were put in bundles and with updated engine ports and such a couple years ago on Steam and I got those. Like the entire pre-2016 Doom collection, plus some other games on the original engine for $5 total. Not a bad deal. Some of those games I didn't actually already own, too, like Strife and Hexen 2. Always wanted Strife, but only had the shareware as a kid. Couldn't beat that as a kid back then anyway; I only ever got through the entire thing pirating it in my 20's at a time when it wasn't able to be purchased anywhere.
Now that you mention the older games you own. It might be worth it to make some backups in the form of iso's or copies. In case they get disk rot at some point. I think some of them must be close to 30 years old now.
Funny you mention Strife. I never really knew about Strife until much later when I found out about it. I have played the shareware version of Heretic quite a lot. But what really fascinated me back then where the early Grand Theft Auto and Carmageddon games. I guess my interest for cars translated into my games as well. Since those are technically open world driving games beside other things.
Is it piracy to do that? I'd argue no.
Is it illegal? Possibly, but it's a grey area and it all depends on your country whether it breaks the law.
(I am not a lawyer so take this as an armchair opinion at most) In Canada, you are allowed to do "format conversion" of media for personal and archival use. So even if on the label it says "Copying this tape is a crime", making a copy to replace an older tape nearing the end of its life (implying you don't intend to use it), converting it to CD or digital file format is allowed in order to play the media in respective devices built for the formats. So it's arguable that conversions/changes to be compatible with Linux or a low-disk space computer could fall under this, for a game which you have a license/genuine copy.
The caveat is that in Canada breaking or circumventing "digital locks" is strictly against the law. The overall definition of what constitutes a digital lock is (to me) very broad and vague. So DRM-removal would arguably fall under digital lock circumvention, but other cases would be less clear.
Legislation is in the House of Commons right now (Bill C-244) to better define in what cases circumvention of locks would be permitted for fair and reasonable use of a product.
If I'm not mistaken with digital download games you are paying to lease them rather than buying them outright. So technically you don't own the game, you are just borrowing it. This would make pirating the same game you bought more of an illegal act.
(Again I'm not an expert) With the Steam Subscriber Agreement it's effectively a purchase of a perpetual/indefinite license to non-commercial use of a game. But purchasing a DVD is, arguably, the same thing, you are given indefinite license to view the video non-commercially in a home setting. What difference does it make between a game on your hard drive and a movie on a disc?
By my moral standard, games with Steamworks bypassed by something like Goldberg is functionally equivalent to DVD decryption. It's my opinion that the continued access to social and internet connected features like Friends list, Workshop, Matchmaking, Redownloading games, Cloud Save Backups is contingent on accepting and adhering to your agreement with Valve and/or the server hosting the matchmacking service. That's why I'm very much against always online type of DRMs for single player games.
Imagine having a pool in your backyard, but the pool installers have to permit and supervise you while you use it. For a public pool it would make sense to be supervised for everyone's safety to ensure no one's messing around, but for your own pool it doesn't.
I do it all the time, mostly because of the DRM shenanigans you mentioned.
Also ripping ROMs from consoles is usually a pain in the ass compared to just downloading them, so I always pirate those, even if I own the game.
I’m fine with it, wasn’t fallout 3 on GOG at some point? You can download those fairly safely. I don’t see it as piracy if you already own the game or a license to the game.
I don't think you actually committed an act of piracy. Good for you, though. I'm still trying to figure out how to fit a 100GB game into my hard drive (SSD) without slowing my computer down. I, too, may turn to FitGirl for the answer. If my theoretical piracy isn't piracy (because I bought the game plus DLC, just haven't downloaded and installed) I don't think your theoretical or alleged piracy is actual piracy, either. I have SO MANY issues with the username FitGirl, though. They could have figured out a name that wasn't so sexist. I would have gone with SlimWare.
As a person who isn’t too knowledgeable about the piracy scene, what’s sexist about “FitGirl”? Is there some story behind the username that makes it sexist in use? My outsider’s impression is that FitGirl is a woman who likes fitness, exercise, and releasing pirated stuff for people.
Most people refer to FitGirl as a man. They assume FitGirl is a man or know it's a man. I thought like you once the first time I saw repacks made by FitGirl. I was like, "Oh, cool! A woman into fitness and computer science!" I hope I was right and I hope your "outsider's take" is right. I fear that this is not the case. Note that I fear this, I cannot confirm if FitGirl is a man or a woman myself since this person is not my next-door neighbor. I just have been around long enough to see how FitGirl is always referred to as a man. Since I've learned more, the idea, as far as I can tell, is that the software gets "slimmed down" and "de-bloated." Perhaps you've heard the term "bloatware?" My understanding is that, if FitGirl is a man, he is referring to women who complain about bloating and he is referring to the "bloatware" that he reduces in size as a woman who has been relieved of the bloating. "Fit" here does not refer to exercise, but rather a body type which, in turn, metaphorically refers to reducing the size of "bloatware." Anyway, that's what I've been able to piece together over the years. Mind you, it's an interpretation of mine. Who knows how far off the mark I am? Maybe someone who knows FitGirl personally can tell us more. Maybe she's somebody's gym buddy.
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Even if you're excessively concerned with morality and what people think of you, the only people realistically going to kick up a fuss about "pirating" games one already owns are Nintendo's lawyers.
it always morally okay to pirate from nintendo
I had to do it once, kind of. Because of some inane reason, a version of Capcom Beat Em Up Bundle I got for Steam was not working in my country unless I used a VPN, so guess what, I had to download a cracked version of the launcher to bypass the georestriction - the "fix" wasn't published until almost FOUR YEARS AFTER RELEASE
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I had to torrent SWAT 4 a few years ago to get a copy of it, even though I had paid for it. I bought it on Direct2Drive back when that looked like a good option for buying games long term. When Direct2Drive was purchased by GameFly, you suddenly had to download games from the GameFly client, and not all of Direct2Drive's catalog was available there. For the games that weren't available on GameFly, it would just show you your CD key.
Today they aren't owned by GameFly anymore, but SWAT 4 still isn't downloadable, it only shows your key. I finally bought it again on GOG a couple months ago when it was like $1. I almost didn't want to do it out of principle though, haha.
I have cracked my Steam copy of Alice: Madness Returns in the past because I've lost my EA account and am unable to play the game I've paid for.
(but I also have zero morality qualms on pirating in general)
DOOM 2016 didn’t work on Linux duo to the DRM being incompatible with proton.
What's really stupid about that is the devs don't have to do any extra work to make it compatible, all they have to do is check a box saying they'd like it to work with proton.
(See my Beehaw comment for the full detail)
Is it piracy to do that? I'd argue no.
Is it illegal? Possibly, but it's a grey area and it all depends on your country whether it breaks the law.
Additionally, many newer games use Denuvo which is known for making your games run slower. Sometimes the pirated copies not only take up less space, but also perform better.
I often pirate old games I own because I'm too lazy to go find the disc. Although at least for Gothic I went to find my old disc anyways because the version I downloaded was missing the In Extremo concert.
And I pirated Sims 4 because of some DRM stuff, can't remember the exact issue. But let that sink in, I had to pirate a game that is literally free.
Just to try the stave off an inquisition against multi-lingual support, the extreme filesize isn't because you're downloading different "language packs". The extreme filesize is because, for whatever reason, they decided to package up five entirely seperate copies of the game in five different languages. You are, in fact, downloading Fallout 3 in its entirety five times.
This is believeable as tomb raider only went from 12 to 20 something, and FFXIII changes cutscenes so mouths match spoken language, even though there's only Japanese and English.
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this post was submitted on 03 Aug 2023
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