Poll: Is it still pirating if you own a cop of the game-on another system?

[The Unworthy Gentleman]

When you buy a game you buy one license to the game. This license entitles you to play one copy of the game on one system. If you want a second copy of the game to play on a different system you buy the other copy. It may suck for you, but this is how buying and selling works.

 

[FoolKiller]

Yes, it is. "The way you see it" is irrelevant. Those big long EULA's which you either read, check-box sign, or are implied as complicit to by the act of playing the game allow for a license to that copy of the game, and nothing else. It's fucked up, but thems the breaks.

Just to be the devil's advocate, that argument actually proves the opposite. The EULA is something you deal with during installation after copying the software. You agree to not copy or reverse engineer etc. your version of the software. But as it's already a copy, you can technically do that and adhere to it.

This argument would fail horribly in court, but its amusing to think about.

 

[Klepa]

It's probably piracy, and it's likely not legal, but I don't think it's wrong. Certainly you shouldn't need to pay full price for both games.

While we are on topic, is trading with friends still considered pirating?

I'd say yes, seeing as piracy is just trading with friends, but on a much larger scale.

 

[ChildofGallifrey]

Ya its piracy but really who gives a shit.

Actually, I'm pretty sure if you own a copy of a game then you're allowed to have a 'backup' of it. If you (or, in this case, your friend) physically own a copy that you paid for, then it's ok to have a backup of it. Not sure whether we start getting into murky territory if the backup copy becomes the primarily used one though, but it might be all the same since you still paid for the game ($10 extra if you play the PC version primarily). I'm not sure if things have changed with the advent of downloadable games being so prevalent though. I think that's just how it was before the internet became widespread on consoles.

Note: I am not a lawyer. This is what I was told by a close friend and fellow gamer who is halfway through law school, so take it with a grain of salt.

The thing is that it is different from a backup. A backup is supposed to be an identical copy of the origional product that you bought. The pc copy of a game is not the same as the 360 version.

Got a point there. I think that might have been more a remnant from before a lot of console games had PC counterparts (like Super Mario RPG or Legend of Legaia would be the same no matter where you'd play it).

OP, I don't know if it would be piracy in the eyes of the almighty legal system (though I think it probably would be), but personally, I wouldn't risk it. Steam has awesome sales all the time.

 

[biggskanz]

The only reason it's called Piracy is to make it sound worse than it really is. Its not even theft cause you're making a copy and not stealing something physical from someone. At worst you're infringing on someone else's "rights" which is their monopoly right to copy granted by some government.

You already paid for the game, that's better than a lot of people, I'd encrypt your torrent and do it from behind a firewall and be done with it.

But ya, if you're asking just legally speaking then it would be considered an infringement on the rights of the copyright holder. Should you care? No.

 

[SsilverR]

It might technically be piracy ... but i think no one should have to buy the same game twice

 

[Total LOLige]

It's not that expensive for pc it's probably £15

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

Yep, that's a big fat copyright infringement there. You're not making a copy of code you've already licenced, you're copying different code (here's the quick legal test on code versions - take the version you already own and try to use it on the system you want to be able to play it on... doesn't work? then it would be copyright infringement to download a version that works on that system). Yes, it's that simple.

 

[burningdragoon]

Yes it's piracy. That's an easy answer.

Is it wrong? Legally, yes. Ethically, um... maybe, maybe not.

Similar situation: If you bought a bluray player and wanted to have bluray versions of dvds you already own, would it be piracy to download and burn the movie onto a bluray disc? Yes. (I'm assuming that the actual video files are not exactly the same on DVD and bluray)