Is it piracy if you already own the product you are pirating?

[Ranorak]

I had a different reason to download a game, which I still found morally right.
I misplaced one of the 3 installation disks, so I could no longer install the game that I bought.
Without a backup of my own, I was either forced to spend another 50 euro's on a totally new one. Or torrent it.

Now, obviously, the publishers would rather have me buy a second copy. They love more money and the law probably supports them in this. But I'll be damned to spend that much money on something I will only use as a back up. The third disk is not needed for actual play, just installation.

 

[MercurySteam]

The way I see it, if you buy a game and it straight out doesn't work then you have the right to pirate it once for yourself. You're especially entitled if it was a result of shitty DRM.

 

[Trippy Turtle]

Morally its fine but legally it is still wrong and still a crime.

 

[Neonsilver]

If you use torrent to get your copy, it's illegal. Using torrent you allow others to download parts of the game from you.
If you get the copy in a different way, I would say it's still piracy. But a good lawyer might save you in that case.

Morally, it's your right to play the game, it should be your right to deactivate the drm if it prevents you from playing.

 

[Aurgelmir]

Ethically wrong? Not really, you are just repairing the faulty product the supplier gave you.

Legally? Yes, it is atleast in a gray area. SOPA tried to make linking to such sites that gave you cracs etc illegal.

But what is interesting is that you downloading said game after having bought it will make you a number in the statistics over Illegal downloads. Which means the publisher will go:
"omg we lost out on another sale! PIRACY MAKES US LOOSE MONEY!"

When the fact of the matter is that you didn't "steal" the game, because you already own a copy... you only picked up another copy to fix the original one

 

[Clive Howlitzer]

I wouldn't really consider it piracy myself but according to the law, it still is so you would be boned.

 

[Blood Brain Barrier]

Of course it's not piracy - you have the product and a legal right to use it. This is like your friend lending you a copy of his game cd because yours got scratched.

 

[Monkeyman O'Brien]

Morally, no. You already paid for the product you are just removing annoying or invasive spyware.
Legally, who gives a fuck? The law has been violated and twisted to serve the corporations instead of the people. Consumer rights have been fucked over simply because whiney **** publishers have convinced people to look at it their way and hired enough lawyers[footnote]And bought enough politicians.[/footnote] to get their own way.

Oh and every single game I have I use a no CD patch just because I don't want to have to find a damn CD when its all installed on here. I just want to click and play so fuck that.
That and the fact that on my first PC the CD drive was fucked and kept cracking discs until one day Diablo 2 exploded in the drive...

 

[Yopaz]

I think torrenting it is illegal, because you're uploading to people who might not have a legal copy of the game. I'm not sure about the legality straight up downloading it, but it's morally defensible at the very least.

I would not upload it onto the internet. I don't even know how to do that. x_x

The only thing I would do would be to download.

Uploading is automatic when you're using a torrent, though some torrent clients allow you to turn off upload altogether. I think it is legal to download things you own, but laws are different in other countries so I don't know. If you got a physical copy of the game you just need to download a crack of some sort though. It takes less time and technically you aren't actually pirating the game by downloading patches used by pirates if you never downloaded the game.

 

[Hamish Durie]

pirating a game is and will always be a crime regardless of logic
regardless of what I have just said
BURN SOPA TO THE GROUND

 

[Dectomax]

Nope, I'd say it's fine to do that. I had a similar circumstance recently. My Rome total War disc was lost many an age ago and recently I decided to install it again, I found that it didn't have the disc and I procured a slightly less than gentlemanly copy. Yet, I still used my own CD-Key and I still paid for my copy of the game...however long ago that was. In cases like your and mine, I believe it's acceptable.

 

[Sandjube]

Pree much what everyone else said. I wouldn't count that as pirating, but I'm sure some judges and whatever would, unfortunately.

 

[Alfador_VII]

No, that's completely fine. Support the devs by buying the game, then get round the stupid DRM

 

[Radoh]

If you buy the game legally then you are saying that you agree to the game and the DRM. So by circumventing it, yes I do believe you'd be in the wrong on that one.
The thing is though, I'm operating under my own viewpoint on the subject, which says that DRM is not as terrible as everyone seems to think it is, since the last time I wasn't online was back in the Dial up era.

 

[Hugga_Bear]

Legally and technically yes, yes it is.
Morally ambiguous. On the one hand you would not rebuy the game, the company loses no sale. However if your pirating in some way encourages or aids those who ripped the game then it could be considered bad.
Not a very big bad though since odds are they don't get very much from your contribution to the pirating world other than another number amongst thousands so eh. Personally not bothered by it even if I disliked pirating much.

 

[DazZ.]

If you use torrents you'd be uploading as well as downloading the file though so that's sharing the game with people who haven't bought it. I'd say yes that's piracy.

If you just downloaded a no cd crack from somewhere directly I'd say no.

 

[Kajin]

If you bought it, feel free to download it. You aren't doing anything illegal, since you already own the game, and you're telling the DRM pushing publishers to shove it by playing a DRM free version of that which you have bought.

Then again my opinion is shit. I haven't owned a PC capable of playing new games in years.

 

[Glademaster_v1legacy]

Legally yes it is still piracy as when you buy a game nowadays you are only buying a licence for 1 product according to EULA.

 

[Ilikemilkshake]

I believe by current laws when you purchase a form of software or data you are legally entitled to a single digital copy. I could be wrong, but that's how it is with CDs, at least it was when I was a kid.
So if the above is true, it is technically piracy (you're not making a copy out of the one you have after all, you're getting a third party copy), but it is legal.

Wouldnt that make ripping a CD to your computer and then putting it on an Mp3 player pirating?

Anyway i had always thought, in the UK at least that it was legal to download something you had already paid for.. But after seeing this thread now im not so sure.

 

[John the Gamer]

I'm going to say yes; because whilst downloading the torrent from the ones who put it up there (seeders), you're also uploading the parts you already have downloaded to other downloaders (peers).

It's like giving hitchhiking bank robbers a ride home; YOU didn't rob the bank, but you are helping THEM do it.

That's called being an accessory I beleive.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accessory_(legal_term)

So even when you own the game and therefor aren't stealing it, you're aiding those that don't own it yet to get it illegally.

But I'm not a lawyer or anything so I might just be talking out of my arse here, but that's how torrents work. You download the files from the seeders, who have the whole package, and the peers who only have parts of it like yourself.

But it might not be stealing if you can stop the torrent program you're using from uploading. Though I wouldn't know how to do that.