Pyro Paul said:
see this is where things tend to get people confused as there is a little controdiction between DMCA and EULA, and the way publishers present the EULA people often have a hard time making out what way is up.
but here is the thing...
you are sold 2 things.
a Copyright and License.
the Copyright is applied Before Everything else and is directly about the Data on the Disk. you own the copyright to the information on the disk and can re-obtain the information as many as times as you want through any means you want.
if that means downloading it off of TPB then so be it.
there is nothing illegal or infringing about this.
the License on the other hand is the 'right to play' said data. If you read just EULA you'd be lead to believe that both the copyright and License are one in the same... but they are not. the copyright is the right to copy the data, the License is the right to Use it. and both are not mutually exclusive.
while you are allowed to download the game and install it across a room full of computers, by EULA you're only allowed to have 1 Instance of the game Active at any given time.
If you buy the game and install it on your PC, then torrent the game and put it on a Netbook that doesn't have a DVD drive, then you've done nothing wrong.
But if you take this one step further, having both systems running the same game at the same time then you've violated EULA.
i hope this clears things up about it.
if you're still confused, i suggest looking at Valve's 'Steam' Program as it is a perfect example.
Ugh, no. You're never sold a copyright. A copyright is a set of exclusive rights given to the author or creator of an original work, which includes the rights to sell, modify, and distribute the work. Copyrights also apply to performances of non-digital works, as well, i.e., dances, comedy, or specific adaptations of public domain works (such as a recording of a philharmonic band playing one of Mozart's operas). If you were sold the copyright to, say,
Doom, you would have the ability to sell and distribute your own copies of
Doom using the same data. The only thing you're sold when you buy a game is the license to use the software.
You have no rights to distribute or profit from the original work, or to obtain said information from illegal distribution. This includes
downloading the game from torrent sites and P2P sites. If you're not using your own backups or the information given to you through the actual instance of the license (i.e., the disc),
you are pirating the information regardless of whether you already own the information or not.
And really, Steam is a good example of the whole license concept. If you violate the terms of the license, Valve can revoke the licenses to
all of your games by banning your account. Just because you bought a license to
Half-Life 2 doesn't give you the right to obtain the information from torrent sites when your account is banned. You need to purchase a second license.
