Ubisoft ain't so Bad

[janh]

Originally Posted by Rockin Robbins

Whether morally right or not (I don't like it) most countries now have laws on the books forbidding you from modifying software of any type to defeat DRM. I choose not to break the law, so I wouldn't consider using the cracked exe file.

Strictly speaking, most copyright laws are probably much more specific than that, but therefore upon loopholes. I can speak for the German law text, but I assume many European formulations at least will sound quite similar. It forbids the "circumvention of a functional copy protection mechanism for the purpose of creating duplicate copies".

Now that offers two legal and accepted loopholes. (A) What is a functional copyright mechansims? This has been tested in law suits already, but it leaves it up to the judge to decide whether he considers a specific mechanism functional, or not. Mechanisms need to be enough sturdy to be functional (i.e. not easy to circumvent).
(B) "For the purpose of creating a duplicate". Now if you edit a easily modifiable text config file, you already have installed your copy -- so no duplication. So this law does not apply here.

In the German legal system, you would probably, or surely, not be prosecuted for editing that file. However, this would have to be tested in a case first to get a general judgement. Even if it would fall under the copyright infringement category, the punishment would be dependent on the damage you did (there will be a differentiation between a civil case for the damage reparation (if a software company would press it), and a separate legal one for the copyright infrigement).
For the damage reparation, the software company would for example have to proof that you caused lost sales, and would have to proof how many -- that would in case of proven guilt (besides the cost of the judge, defendant and case fees) be the penalty to pay. Most likely the judge would even correct that penalty down to match your income so you have a real chance to pay it off in a certain time frame. Now since you paid for your original already, and did not cause any external damage, there is no damage value. And state attorneys are too much in demand for bigger cases that news papers already print for years that they would not accept such a small case.

[jerm138]

Originally Posted by Rockin Robbins

However, if Ubi, as it did in SH3, actually pirates the cracked game from the pirates and releases it officially as the DRM free version of the game then all bets are off.

Didn't they do this with a version of Rainbow Six? They pirated the pirated copy and released it as an official "patch."

Two wrongs don't make a right, so I don't think that this justifies pirating UBI's games...

...but isn't this kind-of F-'ed up?

[urfisch]

UBI is, what MAKES the people "steal" the game...nothing else.

[Gilbou]

Originally Posted by Rockin Robbins

Whether morally right or not (I don't like it) most countries now have laws on the books forbidding you from modifying software of any type to defeat DRM. I choose not to break the law, so I wouldn't consider using the cracked exe file.

However, if Ubi, as it did in SH3, actually pirates the cracked game from the pirates and releases it officially as the DRM free version of the game then all bets are off.

So according to Ubi, piracy is bad unless... I still say that Ubi commits piracy with its DRM, converting your computer to its own use, removing your legal fair use rights with the software. What is worse, piracy of a piece of software or piracy of an entire computer? I'm not going to jump on the bandwagon for either.

SH3 and SH4 are great games that can keep us modding, playing and strategizing for ten years.

In Europe, reverse engineering and modification even of protected software is allowed and protected by law for interoperability issues.

Ex : my PC runs Debian (Xubuntu to be precise).
I use software to play my PC games with a Nvidia driver.
Legally, I am allowed to modify the games as to make them work under my PC (I use cracked .exe so the protection that doesn't work with Linux doesn't forbid me from playing the game). Legally, it's interoperability and there's nothing they can do to prevent me from doing it.

[Rockin Robbins]

Originally Posted by Gilbou

In Europe, reverse engineering and modification even of protected software is allowed and protected by law for interoperability issues.

Ex : my PC runs Debian (Xubuntu to be precise).
I use software to play my PC games with a Nvidia driver.
Legally, I am allowed to modify the games as to make them work under my PC (I use cracked .exe so the protection that doesn't work with Linux doesn't forbid me from playing the game). Legally, it's interoperability and there's nothing they can do to prevent me from doing it.

That sure is a lot more enlightened than what the wholly purchased government of the US has done.

Here is what Wikipedia says about our Digital Millennium Copyright Act

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is a United States copyright law that implements two 1996 treaties of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). It criminalizes production and dissemination of technology, devices, or services intended to circumvent measures (commonly known as digital rights management or DRM) that control access to copyrighted works. It also criminalizes the act of circumventing an access control, whether or not there is actual infringement of copyright itself. In addition, the DMCA heightens the penalties for copyright infringement on the Internet. Passed on October 12, 1998 by a unanimous vote in the United States Senate and signed into law by President Bill Clinton on October 28, 1998, the DMCA amended Title 17 of the United States Code to extend the reach of copyright, while limiting the liability of the providers of on-line services for copyright infringement by their users.

What's this part about criminalizing circumvention of access controls? That sounds like a catch-all that could make preventing a program from going online to authenticate itself a criminal act. It's obviously written by the copyright holders for the purpose of punishing their customers in the name of fighting piracy.

It's as bad as onerous deed restrictions at a condominium, coupled with the power-mad condo associations. Many of the stories coming from those condos are quite entertaining looked at from the outside, but for those unfortunate enough to live there, their entire investment in their property could be at risk.

[FIREWALL]

I stumbled across this old thread by accident as it's not in the Search or SH5 Archives.

After a good nights rest I will answer tomorrow, a the question that was put to me.

Did I remove SH5 after I saw it would still work after, I got a refund ?

[ddrgn]

Originally Posted by FIREWALL

I stumbled across this old thread by accident as it's not in the Search or SH5 Archives.

After a good nights rest I will answer tomorrow, a the question that was put to me.

Did I remove SH5 after I saw it would still work after, I got a refund ?

by far my favorite thread :P