Is it stealing to pirate a game you own physicaly but cant install

[isnosche]

It at least depends on how you download it.

When you download a game via P2P file sharing, you cannot do so without uploading content, no matter how much you try to circumvent it.
Therefore "downloading" a game is illegal even if you own the product/license.

If you use DDL, you're in the situation described on the last 7 pages.

I'd say it is legal but I'm not exactly an expert on American copyright law, so make of that what you will.

Not exactly, p2p sharing by itself is not illigal.

For example
i could post a copy iso online on rapidshare or a p2p network and you also owns a copy of that game.
Nothing is done illigal.

I'm just giving you a way to obtain a Digital version of your game.

Now if i charged for this service, then i'd be in a world of hurt

rapidshare is DDL.

Of course it would be technically not illegal if everyone involved owned the game, but that's not a very realistic scenario.
But then again, we are talking about a hypothetical scenario, so I should have clarified.

Well i think we are talking about gothic 1 here so if i had the Iso file and i send him the game through Rs for instance, nothing we did would be illegal

 

[isnosche]

Once you own a piece of software, you can legally make as many copies of said software as you wish.
You're just not allowed to give out said copies to anyone else.

Unless that person also had a copy or key of that Software.

 

[Evil the White]

Hmm. I'd say there's nothing wrong with it, but it's probably still technically piracy, but I do have a hard copy of Thief 2, and if someone posts stuff on the net about how to get it to work, then I'll use that.

 

[Heart of Darkness]

No, it's still piracy. The only way you're allowed to have a digital backup is if you make one yourself. Taking it off a P2P server of torrent site is still considered copyright infringement, regardless of your owning a physical copy or not.

acctually this is some what of an intresting point...

Arguably no...

DMCA section 117 section a.
...It is not an infringement for the owner of a copy of a computer program to make or authorize the making of another copy or adaptation.

through the Digital Melennium Copyright Act, you legally CAN obtain off of a P2P or Torrent as you tangently authorize the person(s) you are getting the information from to produce another copy for you.

But again, another Very Grey area because of how vauge the law itself is written.

No, it's to authorize someone to make a copy for you from your physical copy, from the serial number associated with your physical copy. Besides, you're not authorizing other people to make torrents. You're just going to TPB (or some similar site) and doing a search for <name of game&gt;. That's not the same.

The whole thing about copyright infringement comes down to licenses. When you buy the game, you are buying one license. One. Pirating a copy for a game you already own is considered copyright infringement because you're obtaining the rights to a second license without paying for it. That's why downloading a torrent for the game is still considered copyright infringement.

 

[SenseOfTumour]

Also, can I try to put a stop to the whole dumb 'Piracy=Theft' thing.

Piracy is counterfeiting, plain and simple. You're not STEALING anything, however you are devalueing the original piece over and over every time you copy it.

After all, if there was a million exact copies of the Mona Lisa, down to the frame, signature and canvas, you could pick one up in Walmart for $!00. However, in doing so, you've destroyed the value of the one original.

By downloading a copy of any digital media, you're expressing your opinion that it's worthless, and stating it's value is zero.

I'm sure we'd all like the ability to print $100 bills on our home printers, however, we'd all soon grumble if a Big Mac cost $5000 in a month's time due to the massive inflation caused by the huge amount of new money flooding the system.

I don't believe games have got that much more expensive over the years, I remember Atari 2600 games being £40 each, and they had about 8k of data on the cartridge. However, maybe our wider knowledge of the 'free' versions online makes us devalue the £40 games of now, despite the massive amounts of time and money invested in their creation.

 

[SenseOfTumour]

No, it's still piracy. The only way you're allowed to have a digital backup is if you make one yourself. Taking it off a P2P server of torrent site is still considered copyright infringement, regardless of your owning a physical copy or not.

acctually this is some what of an intresting point...

Arguably no...

DMCA section 117 section a.
...It is not an infringement for the owner of a copy of a computer program to make or authorize the making of another copy or adaptation.

through the Digital Melennium Copyright Act, you legally CAN obtain off of a P2P or Torrent as you tangently authorize the person(s) you are getting the information from to produce another copy for you.

But again, another Very Grey area because of how vauge the law itself is written.

No, it's to authorize someone to make a copy for you from your physical copy, from the serial number associated with your physical copy. Besides, you're not authorizing other people to make torrents. You're just going to TPB (or some similar site) and doing a search for . That's not the same.

The whole thing about copyright infringement comes down to licenses. When you buy the game, you are buying one license. One. Pirating a copy for a game you already own is considered copyright infringement because you're obtaining the rights to a second license without paying for it. That's why downloading a torrent for the game is still considered copyright infringement.

I'd have to say no.

You're still just wanting to use your original licence, you're not grabbing a second copy for a friend's pc. simple gaining a backup of the data so you can USE your paid for, original licence.

Of course the whole torrenting issue is entirely different, because by downloading thru torrents you're enabling other people to pirate more easily.

 

[FoolKiller]

I bought a truck and it broke down so I stole another one from the dealer.

My problem with all arguments of this nature is that we're talking about data and not a physical object. What you are saying equates to stealing another disc to play it because yours got scratched.

What the OP is asking does not cause any potential loss of sales for the manufacturer, developer, publisher, retailer, or anything else.

I did the same thing with Hitman: Codename 47 because for some reason, the actual disc causes errors when I try to run it, installing a burnt copy and using the no-CD key makes it playable. It's just one of those things.

CE+4

 

[Pyro Paul]

Would it be wrong to find that your copy of a PC game is broken, so you go and steal another copy from the same store you bought it from? Even if you give it back later?

Yes. you're stealing a Box and a Plastic CD.
the Data on the CD you already own so you're not stealing it.

again, Digital Mellineium Copyright Act section 117.

Yes, but if you return it in the same condition you took it and used it just to install the game is that not the same thing?

... No.
it is not.

Theft is the Act of taking something that doesn't belong to you.
Returning it after words does not remove the fact that you stole it.

You Stole a Plastic Case and CD.

regardless if you have the content on the CD or Not... you stole something from that establishment.

And that's where this becomes a grey area. If they get it back in the same condition, even if stolen before, is of no concern to them but still illegal to do. So is downloading a new copy, it is of no concern to them because you already bought it but it is nonetheless still illegal. 'Borrowing' without consent is illegal, no matter how inconsequential it is.

But it is not illegal.

You are Protected by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of the United States Government and the End User License Agreement of that specific Publisher to obtain and use a digital copy of said item.

So indulge me...
How in any way is it Illegal?

Because you obtained it through a P2P?
a file sharing program which is in no way illegal or illicite and is acctually a common way Computer systems and programs stay in sync with out using too much bandwidth, and infact is a popular way ASUS motherboards, Windows 7, Nortons AV, Xbox Live, and Playstation Market obtain vital updates?

 

[GundamSentinel]

Nah, I don't think so. I've had the same problem myself. I bought a game that I couldn't install. Nothing wrong with the disc, but my computer just wouldn't install it. The pirated version worked so I installed that one. I payed for my game, so I suppose I have the right to actually play it.

 

[isnosche]

Same thing like me installing windows on your pc with your key and my dvd's ...

Same thing when i copy paste the counterstrike map on my teams compu's desktop when we
all 8 own a license to the game over network ...

Same thing when i send you the iso on a burned disc when we both own the lisence to use gothic 1

P2P , rapidshare or alike, mail, BY PIGEON,ferret,frog, fish.. carrying A USB DISC

Since you own the license to Gothic 1 as you stated (owning disc and /or cdkey)
Everything you have done is legit

 

[Heart of Darkness]

I'd have to say no.

You're still just wanting to use your original licence, you're not grabbing a second copy for a friend's pc. simple gaining a backup of the data so you can USE your paid for, original licence.

Of course the whole torrenting issue is entirely different, because by downloading thru torrents you're enabling other people to pirate more easily.

Unfortunately, no. From what it sounds like, the OP still has a copy of Gothic on his computer, which broke down. So that's his one license right there. He wants to get a digital copy so he can play it on a computer with no CD drive, which, if he didn't uninstall the game from his other computer, would require him to obtain a second license. If he's pirating the game, he's obtaining a second license illegally. That's copyright infringement.

Even so, it's not his backup copy he's using. It's not a digital copy obtained from his game disc. It's data obtained from someone else's game disc, someone else's backup that they're illegally distributing through torrent and P2P sites, since part of making a digital backup means to keep it for your personal use and not distribute it to others.

 

[Shifty Tortoise]

If you can enter your own serial to unlock the game you've downloaded then it's not pirating, keygens and cracks on the other hand make it illegal

 

[HotPocket]

I bought a truck and it broke down so I stole another one from the dealer.

Doesn't work that way.

Pirating costs the gaming company nothing, the cost of distribution is held by the whoever uploads it. You can argue that it will still cost them money as you aren't buying it (especially if you would buy it otherwise) but he already bought the game at it is unable to be used. Stealing another truck has all those physical materials in it that cost money to produce. A more apt analogy would be to say, "My truck broke down so I went back in time, copied my old truck and brought it back to the future with no damage to the timeline."

 

[warprincenataku]

Anyone can bend the rules to suit their needs. It just depends on what you consider piracy. Technically, yes, yes it is piracy, but justifiable.


If the netbook lacks a drive to install, have you checked the specs? Maybe the computer can't even run it.

 

[Wave Tan]

I'm a staunch anti-piracy advocate but even I'll say this is fine, on one condition: that you own the PC version of the game in the first place.

It's still piracy if you buy a game for 360 and then pirate the PC version, for instance.

 

[warprincenataku]

Anyone can bend the rules to suit their needs. It just depends on what you consider piracy. Technically, yes, yes it is piracy, but justifiable.


If the netbook lacks a drive to install, have you checked the specs? Maybe the computer can't even run it.

 

[Wintermoot]

PS
you can also rip the disc, put the ISO on the notebook and mount it with deamon tools. Its not stealing but copying (wich is the same thing as putting CD,s in iTunes)

 

[icame]

I am a person that genuinely hates piracy, but I don't see any problem with this. You've paid for the game, so there's no issue with downloading it again in a situation like this. This is one of the extremely few exceptions

 

[grimdeath999]

Yeah this is actually legal your allowed to make a back-up of a game as long as you can prove you own it and you dont share it with others.