Am I allowed to download a pirated version if my originally purchased disk is broken?

[Deleted]

It's no illegal to rip dvds/media for backup purposes.

In my country downloading any game or movie is completely legal. (as long as you don't upload, so torrents are illegal)

[Deleted]

In my country downloading any game or movie is completely legal. (as long as you don't upload, so torrents are illegal)

I guess ur dutch? in that case downloading games is not legal. Only music and movies are. Software games u name it is illegal.

[Drihan]

Technically it's still illegal, but since you have purchased the license I doubt they will be that strict with technicalities. Just enter your real serial number when prompted.

[Reclaimer]

This is the dumbest argument anyone can bring up when talking about copyright, there is a HUGE difference!

When you download a game, nothing is lost/used up on the vendors side (Unless the game comes with a serial key). You simply get a copy of the game. Even when pirating a game, you can't argue every single download cost the developer x$s, because you're making the assumption that any of those people would of bought it if it was the only way to obtain a copy. (I know a lot of people who pirate games before buying them because they have a tight budget) and several more like the OP , You already own a license for said game but don't have a disk.

I've personally bought 3 copies of Warcraft III over the years(Lost all of them) and eventually just downloaded the game from a third-party website to avoid it happening again. (This was from before we we're able to just re-dl them from our battle.net accounts)

Obviously the right thing to do is support the developer, but when they already have your cash in pocket and you don't have access to what you paid for, then I personally believe you have a valid reason to "pirate" a game. Most games these days can be re-downloaded assuming they are tied to some kind of account or key (90%+ of modern games) and developers who don't give us that option have no right to argue when we download something we own from somewhere else.

This guy gets the win. There are some games out there i would never even buy unless i downloaded it. Like this dude, I got 3 - 4 copy's of the Daiblo 2 boxset and ended up losing it due to moving houses etcetc. I got fed up of paying 20$ each time. Here is an other win post.

Downloading a copy for personal use is not the problem. And perfectly legal.

The illigal part is redistributing it.

redistributing is the problem. The FBI isnt going to kick your door in because you downloaded Super Mario World on a EMU so your little brother can play it. The only people they are after are the 1's making money off of it.

[Deleted]

Am I allowed to steal a car if my own car is broken ?

Nope, it's also not legal to steal a game out of a store. Downloading is not stealing however: it's copyright infringement (whether you can argue it's morally in he same line is a different discussion). Also keep in mind when you 'buy' a game, you do not buy the game in itself at all. You buy a license to play that game. In my opinion, once you own that right you should be able to use that game no matter from what source it comes from as long as it's for personal use. You payed for it, so you did your moral duty.

The only people they are after are the 1's making money off of it.

All the news of random normal people in the US getting sued for ludicrous amount of money for a few shared MP3 seem to suggest otherwise. Most of the time they get an ultimatum: settle or be bankrupt the rest of your life. I call that extortion tbh.

[Tayace]

This is 2012 just download whatever you want. If the bigwigs wanted to stop this all from happening than they should have dealt with it 13 years ago when it all started. Its normal everyday practice nowadays. When i want to watch southpark, doctor who, or anything i stream the show online. When i want an old game i can't find in stores anymore i download it. When i new dvd gets released i download the ripped uploaded version. It's the way of the internet my friend you can't stop what most of society considers normal already.

[Verdugo]

Am I allowed to steal a car if my own car is broken ?

No, but you are free to make exact copy of that car.

[Edc]

I guess ur dutch? in that case downloading games is not legal. Only music and movies are. Software games u name it is illegal.

That's not how it works. Downloading anything is not illegal in the Netherlands (except for illegal stuff like child porn, for obvious reasons). The difference between music, movies and software is that the first 2 are legal to use and software is not.

In reality, the chances that anyone pirating is going to get caught is very slim, unless you have alot of traffic (uploading in the case of Holland, downloading in some other countries aswell) or you are found to be distributing it to make money.

[Shinzai]

If you've paid for the license to play a game, you're free to reacquire a digital version. Most companies that have digital download services support this directly now. For older games, such as C&C Generals, it was never really a concern for them, so it was never implemented as an option. That's why, when games are added to Steam/Origin, you can normally use your existing (legit) serial number/code to activate them on the aforementioned services.

You can't steal software you already own. It's a different matter if you've lost the serial/key as well. If you're actually generating a false one, then that's getting into very questionable levels of legality, as the serial number is basically your permission slip to use the software in question.

[bejii]

C+C Generals is an EA game. Most EA games are available on Origin. Just enter your CD key and download a legit copy.

Yep, I have done this with a few old EA games that I still had the CD keys for. Namely some Sims 2 expansions and Spore.

If the code redemption window doesn't work, you may need to open a support chat and ask them to do it for you.

[Deleted]

Download everything, say nothing.

[wariofan1]

Backing up is legal, that's the original purpose of .iso files from games. Obviously people love to misuse the system, but its original intend was for cases like this.

redistributing is the problem. The FBI isnt going to kick your door in because you downloaded Super Mario World on a EMU so your little brother can play it. The only people they are after are the 1's making money off of it.

They wouldn't care about Super Mario World anyways, as that game is out of production. The only people that lose money off of that game being downloaded are the people on Ebay, and neither Nintendo nor the FBI would care about that.

[Evolixe]

Leecher confirmed D:

And not a single fuck was given that day :/

[Sj]

Plenty of responses here. Gonna go ahead and lock.