Question on ethics

[Sub_Lon]

I got a coupon for Half Life 2 when I bought my Radeon 9600Pro All-In-Wonder. I still have the coupon, with which I opened a Steam account, but the receipt has long since vanished. Since I need the receipt to receive the free box, I think my only option is to burn an .ISO from a newsgroup. Since I have the CD-key (on the coupon), it wouldn't be illegal / unethical to "pirate" a copy of HL2, would it?

 

[Glo-Boy]

Hm, those are some QUESTIONABLE ETHICS

Ah hah! Ahahahahahah! Yes.


But seriously, um, I would contact ATi about this one. Usually if you're just up front and honest with big companies like that, they'll help you out.

One time I got pissed at my sister and picked up the nearest thing (half life CD) and threw it at her. Unfortunately, it broke. She laughed at me and I wrote a letter to Sierra explaining what I did. They replaced it for me.

 

[Letters]

Just download it from Steam? What's the problem? How's burning an ISO going to get you your 'free box'... whatever you mean by that... ?

 

[Time2Choose]

If you already DL'ed Steam with your HL2 CD Key....then you can't send in you coupon anyway.

 

[PvtRyan]

You essentially buy the cd-key, which you got with your card, it's the thing that grants you the right to play it, and you could only have gotten it in a legal way, the gamedata itself is just code that can be copied as many times as you like, but without the key, it's worthless.
So I think it's alright to just download it, but why can't you just download it through Steam, you've got the cd-key right? As far as I know, that's all you need.

 

[Letters]

Plus, you can still burn it to a CD once you download it through Steam...

 

[Shodan]

Illegal yes. Unethical..... I guess not, I mean you paid for it.

 

[Someone]

yeah not following the logic there...if you have the key you can just download it legally through steam. No ethics question needed.

Whether you download it off steam or warez you still won't get a box anyway.

 

[Sub_Lon]

Thanks, I guess I'd just like to have a hard copy of the game is why I ask.

Another question: If I have multiple computers in my house, can I load Steam on each of them with my CD key? I'm asking this both legally, and practically (Will I be "caught" and lose my key's validity if there is more than one instance running at a time? i.e. me and a couple buds playing on my key)

edit* I think I'm just asking these questions out of boredom, I'm most likely going to burn an iso and have my cd key on a couple computers. Thanks for participating.

 

[Harryz]

Thanks, I guess I'd just like to have a hard copy of the game is why I ask.

Another question: If I have multiple computers in my house, can I load Steam on each of them with my CD key? I'm asking this both legally, and practically (Will I be "caught" and lose my key's validity if there is more than one instance running at a time? i.e. me and a couple buds playing on my key)

Hmmm, I don't think you can run any steam game with CD-Keys that are the same.

 

[Letters]

You can load it on multiple computers, but you won't be able to play on them at the same time.

 

[Sub_Lon]

Hmmm, I don't think you can run any steam game with CD-Keys that are the same.

This is actually a question I thought about before. If I own Half Life 2 (which I will) then I should be able to play it on however many computers I have in my house. If there are 3 computers in my house, then I, my girlfriend, and my brother should all be able to go play online, right? Do they expect every member of a household to buy their own seperate copy?.... Should I write Valve about this?

 

[Letters]

YES, everyone needs to have their own key!

 

[Shuzer]

This is actually a question I thought about before. If I own Half Life 2 (which I will) then I should be able to play it on however many computers I have in my house. If there are 3 computers in my house, then I, my girlfriend, and my brother should all be able to go play online, right? Do they expect every member of a household to buy their own seperate copy?.... Should I write Valve about this?

You can't do this with most online games.
You can play on each computer at seperate times with the same account/cdkey, but not all at the same time.

 

[kevinb456]

well you will be able to play single player at the same time, and possible LAN, but not online, steams too good for that

 

[Sub_Lon]

It just doesn't seem fair... but that's where the other part of the question comes in. Is it not possible to run 2 games with the same key? Will it qutomatically kick one offline/invalidate your cd key/call gabe? Or will it get by until someone at VALVe notices? I can understand if there are leaked CD keys causing hundreds of users running the same CD key, but will they care if there are just 2 games with the same CD key ("Oh that's obviously some kid and his brother") Thanks for the feedback.

 

[Shuzer]

I don't know why you're complaining? Every decent game with cdkey authentication currently prevents two copies of the game being played online at the same time

 

[Gossoon]

I don't see how this isn't fair. I'm no corporate rights kind of guy, but it's a little much to expect being able to exploit a product well beyond its intended use. As others have said, you can burn the Steam cache to disk and load it onto any machine and play it, but only one instance of it may be used at a time. How is this unfair? You got it for free anyway. If you need two copies, just buy another one. Two for the price of one. Geez...

 

[Sub_Lon]

You guys are missing the point, seriously.

I don't see how this isn't fair. I'm no corporate rights kind of guy, but it's a little much to expect being able to exploit a product well beyond its intended use. As others have said, you can burn the Steam cache to disk and load it onto any machine and play it, but only one instance of it may be used at a time. How is this unfair? You got it for free anyway. If you need two copies, just buy another one. Two for the price of one. Geez...

How is my brother or girlfriend and I playing at the same time "exploit[ing] a product well beyond its intended use?" You people get carried away, I'm asking a real question and I get smartasses replying.

 

[Shuzer]

You guys are missing the point, seriously.

No, we're not. You're just not explaining your problem clearly enough.

 

[SubKamran]

It just doesn't seem fair... but that's where the other part of the question comes in. Is it not possible to run 2 games with the same key? Will it qutomatically kick one offline/invalidate your cd key/call gabe? Or will it get by until someone at VALVe notices? I can understand if there are leaked CD keys causing hundreds of users running the same CD key, but will they care if there are just 2 games with the same CD key ("Oh that's obviously some kid and his brother") Thanks for the feedback.

Sorry, it doesn't work that way. I wish it gave you like 3 licenses to use, that'd be useful. But it doesn't. :|

 

[Sub_Lon]

No, we're not. You're just not explaining your problem clearly enough.

I'm questioning Valve's (Steam's) security vs. my right to play a game I bought. If my girlfriend and I want to play HalfLife2 together, we should not have to buy 2 copies of the game, that's just silly. She won't even play it much. But since I bought HL2 (I got the coupon, but that's just as good as buying it, so don't even start.) MY gf and I should be able to play it together. Simple right? right?

 

[Sub_Lon]

Sorry, it doesn't work that way. I wish it gave you like 3 licenses to use, that'd be useful. But it doesn't. :|

That's exactly what it should do!!!!

 

[Someone]

You guys are missing the point, seriously.

How is my brother or girlfriend and I playing at the same time "exploit[ing] a product well beyond its intended use?" You people get carried away, I'm asking a real question and I get smartasses replying.

You paid for one game (one key), right? If you use it for two people....one person is getting to play without buying the game.

I'm really not sure how you see this is unfair when you are getting what you pay for.

Maybe I'm missing something with this?

 

[Shuzer]

I'm questioning Valve's (Steam's) security vs. my right to play a game I bought. If my girlfriend and I want to play HalfLife2 together, we should not have to buy 2 copies of the game, that's just silly. She won't even play it much. But since I bought HL2 (I got the coupon, but that's just as good as buying it, so don't even start.) MY gf and I should be able to play it together. Simple right? right?

As I said, every game with cdkey authentication requires multiple copies to play online, one key can not be used more than once at the same time

 

[EC]

If we were to go along with your "It's just his brother and him playing, no big deal", then let's expand on that. Say your cousin wants to play. That's 3 people. His brother wants to play, and his 2 friends also want to play. There are 6 people. See where I'm going with this?

If you let one person slide with it, then everyone has to be able to slide. And then it would just become chaos.

 

[Sub_Lon]

If we were to go along with your "It's just his brother and him playing, no big deal", then let's expand on that. Say your cousin wants to play. That's 3 people. His brother wants to play, and his 2 friends also want to play. There are 6 people. See where I'm going with this?

If you let one person slide with it, then everyone has to be able to slide. And then it would just become chaos.

That's going a bit far with it, don't you think? I think it should allow for 2 or maybe 3 people on one license. And what security measures are in place to keep me from sharing my code with someone?

 

[Shuzer]

Your code is bound per Steam account. Once it's registered to your account, it's in use and can't be registered on another account.

You can, however, share your account and let others play it, but you won't be able to play it at two places at the same time with the same account/key.

 

[EC]

That's going a bit far with it, don't you think? I think it should allow for 2 or maybe 3 people on one license. And what security measures are in place to keep me from sharing my code with someone?

No, I don't think it's going any further than what you're saying. Like I said, if you let one person slide, you'd have to let everyone else slide.

If the teacher let's one person go to their locker because they left their assignment in there, and the locker is just outside the door, would it be fair if the teacher didn't let someone who had the same problem, but their locker was on the other side of the school go get theirs?

 

[Orange]

Building on what EC said,
Valve wouldn't discern a second computer at your home from a computer across the neighborhood, where someone could play it tons, and not just every once in a while.

I agree it sucks, but it makes sense. I play Wc3 with my friend online at his house because a third friend of ours NEVER plays it , let alone online, so we use his cdkey.

Perhaps you can get afriend with 56k to buy the game, enjoy 1 player, and take his. . . er nm. Guess that wouldn't be ethical.

Technically I see that keys shouldn't be shared, but getting a second copy for such limited use does seem silly.

Would be neat if "multiplayer only" was available outside of subscription/cyber cafes for under 30$.

That's it! you could fool them into thinking your house is a cyber cafe! er . . . perhaps not.

 

[Sub_Lon]

I think I'm going to write VALVe inquiring about this. While the obvious threat of piracy is there, there has to be a way that my girlfriend and I can play eachother using my steam account or cd key. What's Gabe's email?

 

[Shuzer]

I think I'm going to write VALVe inquiring about this. While the obvious threat of piracy is there, there has to be a way that my girlfriend and I can play eachother using my steam account or cd key. What's Gabe's email?

I don't understand why you think you're entitled to more than one license? Rather, why YOUR license should be special because you have a girlfriend you want to play HL2 with, but on a limited scale?

 

[Sub_Lon]

I don't understand why you think you're entitled to more than one license? Rather, why YOUR license should be special because you have a girlfriend you want to play HL2 with, but on a limited scale?

Yeah you pretty much nailed it on the head there. A lot of households have multiple computers today, HL2 is a $50 game, it's silly to say that each computer needs its own copy to play.

If I buy a DVD, we can all watch it together. We don't have to each buy a copy of the DVD.

*edit* Don't worry shuzer, you'll have a girlfriend to play with someday... :naughty:

 

[Gossoon]

Why don't you just have your girlfriend sit on your lap? THen you can both play it together.

 

[Shuzer]

Yeah you pretty much nailed it on the head there. A lot of households have multiple computers today, HL2 is a $50 game, it's silly to say that each computer needs its own copy to play.

If I buy a DVD, we can all watch it together. We don't have to each buy a copy of the DVD.

*edit* Don't worry shuzer, you'll have a girlfriend to play with someday... :naughty:

You have an entitlement attitude. Prove to me that you don't, and I'll drop my argument.

 

[jkf]

If I buy a DVD, we can all watch it together. We don't have to each buy a copy of the DVD.

HL2 is the same way. If you buy one copy, everyone can watch it together, while one person plays.

If each person wants to use it on their own, having control of the dvd/game at the same time, then each person needs to buy their own dvd/game.

 

[Gunner]

Yeah you pretty much nailed it on the head there. A lot of households have multiple computers today, HL2 is a $50 game, it's silly to say that each computer needs its own copy to play.

If I buy a DVD, we can all watch it together. We don't have to each buy a copy of the DVD.

Get it through your thick head, one copy per person for online play. It won't change now, it won't change tomorrow. And all your dumb analogies and your cheapskate girlfriend won't change a thing.

 

[Sub_Lon]

CB Para, you have the word "pwned!" as your avatar. 'nuff said.

Shuzer, yes, I do feel entitled. Anyone who spends $50 or buys a video card for this game should very well feel entitled to enjoy the game with a friend.

I guess my question has been answered, I'll shoot an email to VALVe and post the reply here.

 

[Shuzer]

You'll shoot an e-mail to VALVe, telling them to change the way cdkey authentication works and has worked for a good 8 years now?

Have fun

 

[EC]

So enjoy the game with your friend... one at a time. It's not really that difficult to understand.