3 ms·

The problem isn't getting the media, the problem is the license. If you get Windows and MS has blocked your key, it doesn't matter that you own the key: Window

The problem isn't getting the media, the problem is the license. If you get Windows and MS has blocked your key, it doesn't matter that you own the key: Windows will talk to their server and the server will say "that's not a valid license I don't care who owns it" Likewise, it doesn't matter where you get a game from, unless you break the DCMA and modify the binary, DRM enabled games will phone home to the "game service provider" to verify your license. It's been a long time since games locally verified licenses, that's why you don't see keygens and also why they all require launchers to function - If they take down the servers or block you specifically, proof of ownership does literally nothing...

derefr 5y ago
> Likewise, it doesn't matter where you get a game from, unless you break the DCMA and modify the binary, DRM enabled games will phone home to the "game service provider" to verify your license. If you own the license, then downloading a pre-cracked derivative work of the installation media also isn't illegal (provided that the cracker has put the crack itself in the public domain!) To resume the analogy: Microsoft might not like it that you're using a pre-cracked version of Windows that doesn't phone home; but if you're using that pre-cracked version of retail Windows with a valid retail Windows license, then there's nothing they can legally do about that, even if they somehow find out. (This situation has come up many times in the past; pre-cracked versions of software are sometimes used in industry because of other customizations done during the cracking process that make them more robust for embedded use-cases.) Now, of course, the cracking itself may have been illegal under the DMCA, but there's a simple fix for that: the cracking just has to be accomplished by someone who's not a US citizen. The DMCA doesn't apply to things that foreign nationals get up to. (But really, the thing you'd want here is legislation that requires that games that "phone home" to check for IP licensing status, do so to some disinterested third-party IP licensing registry — which could be a blockchain-like immutable ledger, or even just the sort of "IP clearinghouse"-like services that modern commercial music sampling is built on.)
- BoorishBears 5y ago
  This is wrong on so many counts my head is spinning. Your license defines exactly what software it's a license for, I guarantee you "pirated copy" is not part of that. You're also making a copy of illegally distributed software (not just cracking that's a problem, distribution is too...), which opens you up to liability, since again, your license doesn't cover that. And to top it all off, you're still not going to get the full functionality of the game if you just crack the software, multiplayer still requires their servers (and before I get the default reply of "I don't care about multiplayer", the fact the most played games are largely multiplayer indicates most people do)
  - derefr 5y ago
    > Your license defines exactly what software it's a license for, I guarantee you "pirated copy" is not part of that. That's where DMCA anti-circumvention exemptions come into play. If I own an IP license for software X; but there are technological barriers in place preventing me from using the software for the purpose I paid for the license to enable; then computer programs that "fix the problem" to allow me to use the license I paid for, are explicitly a protected class of software under the law. And the license, or Terms of Service, or anything else, can't say anything to the contrary (or, well, it can, but such terms would be legally unenforceable for reasons of public policy — similar to e.g. contracts stipulating that workers will work without legally-mandated protections, or a contract from a public educational institution granting access to a resource but not to legally-mandated accessibility aides for that resource.) And that is enshrined explicitly in multiple existing exemptions related to abandonware, which would pertain in exactly the case where a service like Steam goes defunct and all the licensing schemes of its distributed games stop working. The various cracks to get those games working again? Legally exempt! > multiplayer still requires their servers Given that two existing DMCA anti-circumvention exemptions are: > Computer programs that enable wireless devices to connect to a wireless telecommunications network when circumvention is undertaken solely in order to connect to a wireless telecommunications network and such connection is authorized by the operator of such network; and: > Video games in the form of computer programs embodied in physical or downloaded formats that have been lawfully acquired as complete games, when the copyright owner or its authorized representative has ceased to provide access to an external computer server necessary to facilitate an authentication process to enable local gameplay; These clauses, read carefully by a competent lawyer, could be argued to in combination have a spirit that would extend to include a new exemption: of alterations to online games required to allow them to connect to the "telecommunications network" embodied by a white-room reimplemented private server for the game.

derefr 5y ago

> Likewise, it doesn't matter where you get a game from, unless you break the DCMA and modify the binary, DRM enabled games will phone home to the "game service provider" to verify your license. If you own the license, then downloading a pre-cracked derivative work of the installation media also isn't illegal (provided that the cracker has put the crack itself in the public domain!) To resume the analogy: Microsoft might not like it that you're using a pre-cracked version of Windows that doesn't phone home; but if you're using that pre-cracked version of retail Windows with a valid retail Windows license, then there's nothing they can legally do about that, even if they somehow find out. (This situation has come up many times in the past; pre-cracked versions of software are sometimes used in industry because of other customizations done during the cracking process that make them more robust for embedded use-cases.) Now, of course, the cracking itself may have been illegal under the DMCA, but there's a simple fix for that: the cracking just has to be accomplished by someone who's not a US citizen. The DMCA doesn't apply to things that foreign nationals get up to. (But really, the thing you'd want here is legislation that requires that games that "phone home" to check for IP licensing status, do so to some disinterested third-party IP licensing registry — which could be a blockchain-like immutable ledger, or even just the sort of "IP clearinghouse"-like services that modern commercial music sampling is built on.)

BoorishBears 5y ago
This is wrong on so many counts my head is spinning. Your license defines exactly what software it's a license for, I guarantee you "pirated copy" is not part of that. You're also making a copy of illegally distributed software (not just cracking that's a problem, distribution is too...), which opens you up to liability, since again, your license doesn't cover that. And to top it all off, you're still not going to get the full functionality of the game if you just crack the software, multiplayer still requires their servers (and before I get the default reply of "I don't care about multiplayer", the fact the most played games are largely multiplayer indicates most people do)
- derefr 5y ago
  > Your license defines exactly what software it's a license for, I guarantee you "pirated copy" is not part of that. That's where DMCA anti-circumvention exemptions come into play. If I own an IP license for software X; but there are technological barriers in place preventing me from using the software for the purpose I paid for the license to enable; then computer programs that "fix the problem" to allow me to use the license I paid for, are explicitly a protected class of software under the law. And the license, or Terms of Service, or anything else, can't say anything to the contrary (or, well, it can, but such terms would be legally unenforceable for reasons of public policy — similar to e.g. contracts stipulating that workers will work without legally-mandated protections, or a contract from a public educational institution granting access to a resource but not to legally-mandated accessibility aides for that resource.) And that is enshrined explicitly in multiple existing exemptions related to abandonware, which would pertain in exactly the case where a service like Steam goes defunct and all the licensing schemes of its distributed games stop working. The various cracks to get those games working again? Legally exempt! > multiplayer still requires their servers Given that two existing DMCA anti-circumvention exemptions are: > Computer programs that enable wireless devices to connect to a wireless telecommunications network when circumvention is undertaken solely in order to connect to a wireless telecommunications network and such connection is authorized by the operator of such network; and: > Video games in the form of computer programs embodied in physical or downloaded formats that have been lawfully acquired as complete games, when the copyright owner or its authorized representative has ceased to provide access to an external computer server necessary to facilitate an authentication process to enable local gameplay; These clauses, read carefully by a competent lawyer, could be argued to in combination have a spirit that would extend to include a new exemption: of alterations to online games required to allow them to connect to the "telecommunications network" embodied by a white-room reimplemented private server for the game.