Ea to strip it's games off steam?!

[Wozza63]

yeh but HDDs are quicker than disc drives, so its worth it, and i think the game is completely installed to the PC anyway, you just need proof of purchase kinda thing

 

[DeadEyeDuk]

Just sounds like Steam...but with more effort

 

[Wozza63]

its useful if youve already got the game though.. and you dont want to buy it again

 

[Lum]

Thing is, if you're going to use Game Jackal which is of questionable legality, then you may as well just go the whole hog and install a crack. The end result is the same (can play the game without taking the disc with you) and they're both of the same legal status, one just wastes disk space.

 

[DeadEyeDuk]

Is it illegal day today? I know you werent really advocating illegal activities Lum, but cropped up a few times today

 

[Wozza63]

like music and movies there are some laws that make it legal to download cracked games, hence the reason why torrents are still up, and anything downloaded is legal for up to 48 hrs and is considered trialling the product

 

[Flucky]

I'm a fan of downloading music and movies and various programs and whatnot, but I've never downloaded a game it's just something I like having a legitimate copy of. Can you still play online if you have an illegitimate copy?

 

[Lum]

The 48 hour thing is a myth. It is not legal and never has been.

As for playing online, it depends on the nature of the protection, e.g. if it does a disk check and a serial number check and you have a legit serial you're usually ok, though sometimes you'll fall foul of cheat detection.

For me it's not so much of an issue as it's mainly taking the disks with me on trips with the laptop that I object to, and you're never going to be able to play online using hotel internet anyway.

 

[Wozza63]

its true trust me, its what kept open Limewire and its what is keeping open a lot of other similar sites, although another claim is that they do not control what is put on there

 

[Lum]

It's not true. There is nothing in the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or the Copyright and Related Rights Regulations 2003 that allows for any trial period, however making copies for personal use is not (yet) a criminal act, so it's down to the copyright holder to take civil action, hence the whole fiasco with ACS law and so on.

The P2P networks generally try to claim common carrier status, the same as your ISP does, or in the case of Bittorrent trackers, that they do not store any copyright works themselves.

Despite this they still get shut down from time to time but there's always a new one to replace it.


FWIW, the 2003 Regulations actually ban using cracks, or Game Jackal, even for personal use, though again this is a civil, not criminal, infringement. It's only criminal if you are selling it. This most likely explains why SlySoft are based in the Bahamas.

 

[DeadEyeDuk]

Never mind illegal, its immoral (it just is!)

 

[Wozza63]

for games that are impossible to get a hold of i believe its worth it but i dont download new games (illegally) i downloaded NFSU2 because it wasnt worth paying £5 for something that may not actually work, or games that i do generally just want to try

 

[DeadEyeDuk]

games that i do generally just want to try

Without getting into a whole debate about these things (there was a whole other thread for that!), I dislike this argument more than "I want it for free"...at least the latter type of scum is honest about it. Noone gave anyone the right to "try before buy" when it comes to games and the like, people just took it as a kind of acceptable theivery and convince themselves its ok...it isnt.

 

[Lum]

Never mind illegal, its immoral (it just is!)

I don't think it's immoral to crack a game that you have legitimately paid for. There is no technical reason why I should have to cart the discs around with me as every game performs a full install. There is no technical reason for them to ever leave the shelf other than for the first installation and for system reformats.

On that note, don't forget that EA like to pull stunts like the two installation limit, so if you have to reinstall Windows twice, you can no-longer play the game you legitimately paid for. You can't seriously say it's immoral to work around that.

It's ironic that in this day and age the pirates get a better quality product, games that you can install and have just work, films that don't force you to sit through trailers and studio logos, music that will work on any device you happen to own. None of the measures they put in place actually do anything to stop the pirates they just annoy those who bought legally. Surely that is immoral. At the very least it's stupid.

I'm not trying to defend people who pirate games that are readily available, but cracking your games, currently illegal? yes. Immoral? I don't think so.


For what it's worth, Alice was my first experience with EA's download manager, and sure while the app is a bit clunky and slow, like Steam was in the early days, it seems to work ok for the most part, and it let me install and run Alice on both my laptop and my desktop, so I guess it's fine.

 

[Flucky]

I don't think it's immoral to crack a game that you have legitimately paid for. There is no technical reason why I should have to cart the discs around with me as every game performs a full install. There is no technical reason for them to ever leave the shelf other than for the first installation and for system reformats.

On that note, don't forget that EA like to pull stunts like the two installation limit, so if you have to reinstall Windows twice, you can no-longer play the game you legitimately paid for. You can't seriously say it's immoral to work around that.

It's ironic that in this day and age the pirates get a better quality product, games that you can install and have just work, films that don't force you to sit through trailers and studio logos, music that will work on any device you happen to own. None of the measures they put in place actually do anything to stop the pirates they just annoy those who bought legally. Surely that is immoral. At the very least it's stupid.

I'm not trying to defend people who pirate games that are readily available, but cracking your games, currently illegal? yes. Immoral? I don't think so.


For what it's worth, Alice was my first experience with EA's download manager, and sure while the app is a bit clunky and slow, like Steam was in the early days, it seems to work ok for the most part, and it let me install and run Alice on both my laptop and my desktop, so I guess it's fine.

lol that's disgraceful

 

[Lum]

I think they increased it to 5 for some games after complaints.

They also added a deactivation tool, which is fine provided you know about it and your system is still operable at the point you decide to reformat, which is often not the case.

I know of some people who like to reformat every couple of months, "for performance" even though that's no longer really necessary as "Windows Rot" is a legacy of the 98 and XP days, unless you manage to get yourself infected.

Edit: Which reminds me, another good reason for cracks. Stick your games on a separate partition and a cracked game will not need reinstalling after you reformat and reinstall Windows.