Legal!!!! or not?

[IBILA]

Hypothetical question.

Im thingking of buyin HL2 trough STEAM because if i have to wait for the game to ship to Holland..the game is old before i have it!

Noting wrong with that yet...

But what if i bought it troug steam and...made a copy of someone's original HL2 disk... as a backup in case i need to format my drives and...not feeling like downloading the whole game again!

Is that Legal or Illegal?

Seems to me there is nothing wrong with that as i am already a owner of the game!

Tell me if im wrong.

 

[Hazar]

I'm pretty sure that's illeagal. I think you would be able to burn the preload stuff to a disk from your own comp. so you wouldn't have dl it all again.

 

[pk1209]

i'm just gonna burn my steam folder to a dvd.

 

[butternuts]

Why not just burn the preload files to cd/dvd....

 

[Reaperman]

well according to US law (which may or may not have jurisdiction here), you are allowed one copy of any software for "archive" purposes, if you distribute it to anyone else however, it becomes a crime...

 

[Varsity]

All you need do is burn the cache files to a CD.

 

[BloodyMario]

I think this would be legal. Think of it as buying a steam account with HL2 unlocked. It doesn't matter where the actual software comes from (Steam/backup CD/original CD) as long as you use it with your original steam account which was legally purchased.

 

[fluX]

Hypothetical question.

Im thingking of buyin HL2 trough STEAM because if i have to wait for the game to ship to Holland..the game is old before i have it!

Noting wrong with that yet...

But what if i bought it troug steam and...made a copy of someone's original HL2 disk... as a backup in case i need to format my drives and...not feeling like downloading the whole game again!

Is that Legal or Illegal?

Seems to me there is nothing wrong with that as i am already a owner of the game!

Tell me if im wrong.

Hehe, interesting question. Ask Vivendi or Valve about it. :O

If the Steam version and the DVD version were exactly the same
and your Steam account enabled you to USE the software in terms of a license, I would actually believe that this could be legal. However - legal means legal in the country were you come from.

Anyway, I do not think the two version will be the same, a DVD contains up to 4.5 Gigs I doubt they distribute everything to all the Steam clients.

 

[911error]

Whos going to know you did it? I say do it...

 

[Iced_Eagle]

Although you do own HL2, you do not own the CDs (they are your friends) so copying the CDs is illegal.

Copying YOUR cache files isn't illegal AFAIK (check with Steam ToS though).

 

[rkef]

Whos going to know you did it? I say do it...

There's no reason to. As others said, he can just burn the relevant files under the SteamApps directory.

This discussion is moot! Moot, I tell you!

p.s. yes, I've done this myself, so I'm not just speculating.

p.p.s this is better than the original disc; you can use a RW disc and always have the latest version backed up, without having to manually hack together a hybrid original disc / integrated updates dealy.

 

[fluX]

Although you do own HL2, you do not own the CDs (they are your friends) so copying the CDs is illegal.

Copying YOUR cache files isn't illegal AFAIK (check with Steam ToS though).

Ussually you buy a license to use software, the CDs are just a way to store the software you are allowed to use. Anyway, this is a bit academic, simply do it or don't do it

 

[BloodyMario]

Although you do own HL2, you do not own the CDs (they are your friends) so copying the CDs is illegal.

Copying YOUR cache files isn't illegal AFAIK (check with Steam ToS though).

Whether he owns the CD or not is entirely irrelevant. He bought the license for one copy of HL2 so where the actual software comes from is nobody's business. The same reasoning applies to music. If you bought a CD with a certain song you can download that song off the internet until the wheels come off.

 

[figge]

In Sweden, you can have any copy of any game (even if you havn't bought it) for legal... BUT you are not allowed to share it... ;P

 

[Bobcat]

To my knowledge, you can safely create a copy of your friends disc and use it to install instead of re-downloading HL², seeing as you own a license already, I don't see a problems with doing it.

 

[Incitatus]

To my knowledge, you can safely create a copy of your friends disc and use it to install instead of re-downloading HL², seeing as you own a license already, I don't see a problems with doing it.

I'd agree with this, but anything we say is just a guess, as educated as it may be. Try saking valve or VU.

:afro:

 

[goomyman]

its totally legal. You can make as many copies as you want just dont sell them. Besides you need to sign on to steam and use the cd key to play offline or on i believe. This means that in order to play you must connect to the net.

 

[Icarus]

The answer is: Yes, you can do it. When you purchase the game you are buying the rights for you to own that piece of software.

 

[Asus]

Personally, I'd rather burn the cache file because it will be the updated game. After a number of updates you can burn the updated cache file to disk and have it with you rather than downloading the updates after you install from the retail CD.