26 replies to this topic

[LHammonds]

you say downloading other people's backups is illegal.

If you did not buy the game and you download an image of it, THAT is illegal.

Means, if you own the game, it is still illegal downloading a cracked exe/iso from another source or not?

I guess that is a gray area. However, if police come knocking at your door because you downloaded Oblivion from their pirate-catching server and you produce a copy of a legit CD, then I guess they have nothing to stand on. But please know that I am NOT a lawyer and I do not know the actual answer to this question for the US, UK or any other country. I do know that software owners have the legal right to make one backup copy regardless of how bad software companies do not want you to make copies of their game.

Because I have hard times to belive, that you create such stuff yourself.

And why is that? I have a Bachelors and Masters degree in Computer Science and know many programming languages. Over the course of my career, I've been hired as a professional programmer, systems analyst, computer consultant, eCommerce web developer / manager and database administrator. There isn't anything I can't do if I want it bad enough. If I had the kind of knowledge I have now back when I was brat teenager, I'd probably be thrown into some FBI dungeon or made to work for them. I sincerely believe there is a reason why knowledge comes with age and having it too early can be a bad thing..... ** mind wonders and begins thinking about aliens, their amount of knowledge and how they view us as a race...(smack..back to reality)**

Have fun, gotta go feed the littles.
LHammonds

[Yossarian22]

I guess that is a gray area. However, if police come knocking at your door because you downloaded Oblivion from their pirate-catching server and you produce a copy of a legit CD, then I guess they have nothing to stand on. But please know that I am NOT a lawyer and I do not know the actual answer to this question for the US, UK or any other country. I do know that software owners have the legal right to make one backup copy regardless of how bad software companies do not want you to make copies of their game.

you right, the rules vary a lot between different countries. Latest news about one of the big torrent sites was, that their company seat moves from italy over netherlands over denmark to bypass the copyright rules of these countries until they are indicted again and move on...

There isn't anything I can't do if I want it bad enough.

I never said I don't belive you could do it, but I doubt you spend your time on such meaningless stuff... well maybe it's just me, but it's really hard for me to understand the exitement of the hacking and warez-scene in producing cracks and worms and trojans and whatever else... for free... no pay... how can that be fun... well guess it's only understandable with a programmers mind.

gretz

Yoss

[Ferryt]

To Kaotik: Your sig is basically a representation of me trying to use steam. So, therefore, I will (attempt to) crack New Vegas so I can still use my head later

I bought Oblivion through Steam. I wanted it to work. I really did. I wasn't a happy camper at all.

Then I spent another twenty-five bucks on the boxed GOTY version (thank you GameStop for stocking old stuff!). I applied a no-DVD crack because I think it's asinine that any manufacturer would make us risk our original DVDs daily (by not allowing us to use copies). That was probably the best twenty-five bucks I've ever spent on a game. I'm a very happy camper, now.

PS -- I may never again purchase a game through Steam. I went through the same hell with Borderlands, and wound up buying the boxed set, too. It's a nice concept ... when it works. When it doesn't work ... well, we won't go there.

[KaotikKreator]

To Ferryt and CommanderCrazy

I've never had a single problem with Steam. I can't say anything about Borderlands (don't own it) but Oblivion works great. Did you use it after Steam v4 came out? Since then, all of the little problems that I used to have are gone. Just wondering, as it's always annoying (for me, anyway) when stuff I pay for can't be used.

[Naalu Naiglemez]

... I can understand that once a game is released not everyone can afford it and some try to obtain illegal copies of it, but after 4 years when the price is barely a problem, that I can't understand...

Yes, and Elder Scrolls V will exist if there are means i.e. if people buy Oblivion.
As the authors of mods who are not encouraged today, will not work tomorrow.

[Ferryt]

Did you use it after Steam v4 came out?

Yep. It works like a charm with Half-Life, Half-Life 2, and Portal. Borderlands was always glitchy under Steam for me, for some reason and my retail version actually ran faster -- maybe 5 or 6 fps faster, which was significant, seeing that my typical fps under Steam was about 15 to 20, frequently dropping down to only 5 or less. My problems with Oblivion I finally traced to the fact that the Steam version of the game will not work with OBSE, and a lot of the mods I wanted to use required OBSE. It turns out that the Steam version of the game's executable is encrypted. o.O This makes it impossible for OBSE to access it. The sad fact is that Steam doesn't have to encrypt the executable to protect the game from being pirated. They didn't do this with Fallout 3 but, instead, encrypted the launcher, allowing the FOSE to work just fine.

[evilneko]

Borderlands is glitchy in general anyway. It doesn't like AMD quad-cores at all!