Hacking A legality/ethics question and discussion about disc/download games

[yafaiz]

Even if you were allowed to rip your own games (Debatable) if you play that game and circumvent copy protection, then it's illegal too.

 

[Rydian]

If it's illegal to cut a tag on your mattress, why would the same law not apply to a game console?

It's actually not.

It's illegal for the store to remove the tag before selling it to you, since the tag has important info (material makeup and stuff), but once it's yours you can rip it right off, just like you can toss out the Wii U's warning manual and stuff.

 

[n1ckn4m3]

With regard to the DMCA, the following things are illegal in the US (regardless of whether or not the general belief is that they should or should not be illegal):

1) It is illegal to utilize any mechanism to bypass copy protection mechanisms. In this case, this would likely be the d2x installation or the USB Loader installation. It's possible that due to the DMCA exemptions for certain consoles, that Homebrew Channel itself may not be illegal, but I would err on the side of caution and believe that they could find a way to claim this was illegal.
2) It is illegal to rip a copy of a game you own a physical copy of. It doesn't matter that you own it, ripping it from the disc is considered illegal by the DMCA. Archival / Backup copies are no longer protected under fair use for software, as decided in a court case several years ago. Yes, I agree this is some crap, but it is what it is.
3) It is illegal to use a USB Loader to play a game you own from a USB device. It's illegal because the USB Loader bypasses the copyright mechanisms of the console. It doesn't matter that you own the original, the bypassing of the copyright mechanism is what classifies it as illegal.

So, to answer the original question (as many others have): Yes, it's illegal (unfortunately) to make backup copies of games you own, move them to an HDD, and use a USB Loader to play them -- for multiple reasons. It does not matter that you have legitimately purchased the original. The court system in the US has systematically destroyed fair use throughout the last 10-15 years as they struggle to gain even a remote semblance of an idea of the ramifications of software copyright as it relates to a world where a product can be duplicated an infinite amount of times with no degradation in quality and at no cost.

(standard disclaimer: IANAL, YMMV, all of this information is aggregated from court cases that have defined these laws and their extent. If you're curious as to whether I'm correct, do some googling.)

 

[twiddler]

With regard to the DMCA, the following things are illegal in the US (regardless of whether or not the general belief is that they should or should not be illegal):

1) It is illegal to utilize any mechanism to bypass copy protection mechanisms. In this case, this would likely be the d2x installation or the USB Loader installation. It's possible that due to the DMCA exemptions for certain consoles, that Homebrew Channel itself may not be illegal, but I would err on the side of caution and believe that they could find a way to claim this was illegal.
2) It is illegal to rip a copy of a game you own a physical copy of. It doesn't matter that you own it, ripping it from the disc is considered illegal by the DMCA. Archival / Backup copies are no longer protected under fair use for software, as decided in a court case several years ago. Yes, I agree this is some crap, but it is what it is.
3) It is illegal to use a USB Loader to play a game you own from a USB device. It's illegal because the USB Loader bypasses the copyright mechanisms of the console. It doesn't matter that you own the original, the bypassing of the copyright mechanism is what classifies it as illegal.

So, to answer the original question (as many others have): Yes, it's illegal (unfortunately) to make backup copies of games you own, move them to an HDD, and use a USB Loader to play them -- for multiple reasons. It does not matter that you have legitimately purchased the original. The court system in the US has systematically destroyed fair use throughout the last 10-15 years as they struggle to gain even a remote semblance of an idea of the ramifications of software copyright as it relates to a world where a product can be duplicated an infinite amount of times with no degradation in quality and at no cost.

(standard disclaimer: IANAL, YMMV, all of this information is aggregated from court cases that have defined these laws and their extent. If you're curious as to whether I'm correct, do some googling.)

Then shouldn't DVR's and TIVO's be banned?

 

[n1ckn4m3]

The differentiators are that that DVR/Tivo devices do not bypass the copy protection, and their primary purpose is not to bypass copy protection (vs. the d2x cios or the USB Loader program in general). You cannot make multiple copies of recorded video/TV on a DVR and obtain them unencrypted (unless you hack the Tivo box, but that's a rabbit hole we won't go into here) to distribute to non-subscribers. As such, no mechanism of the DVR/Tivo is specifically designed to bypass copy protection, and there is no normal use of the DVR/Tivo device to copy protected video. I'm sure there are more in-depth reasons, but ultimately I believe that's the kicker.

Reminder that all TV these days is sent with a 'broadcast flag', which denotes whether the video is able to be copied / recorded, etc. DVR devices and Tivo devices (that are unhacked) uphold this flag. Additionally, very few cable networks have enabled use of this flag. I can only think of one time that I remember hearing of a network enabling the protection by utilizing this, and there was so much backlash from the customers that they disabled it very quickly.

Additionally, the courts only struck down the archival copy / backup clause with relation to DVD, BluRay, and Video Games (if memory serves). They did not strike down the archival copy clause for CDs (e.g., MP3 ripping of your own disc) or TV, but TV subscribes to a slightly different ownership model as you don't actually purchase the right to watch the TV shows, but instead subscribe to a service which provides them on an as-provided basis.

 

[Mentalpen]

UK law allows 1 backup of any optical media you own legitimately.

I don't think it states how you obtain it or how you are not allowed to obtain it.

 

[rednekcowboy]

Even if you were allowed to rip your own games (Debatable) if you play that game and circumvent copy protection, then it's illegal too.

You're not circumventing copyright protection if you didn't break any copy right protection to obtain the digital copy backup of a title you already own. In Canada, it's illegal to sell modified consoles, but it's not illegal to modify them. So, if I download a copy of a game I own and modify the console to play the digital backup of that game, then I'm not circumventing any copyright laws whatsoever thereby technically making it legal to download and play backups.

I will admit the states is vastly different as they have just about everything covered.

 

[twiddler]

So if you buy a game or movie, you don't really own it. You just paid for the privilege to use it.

 

[n1ckn4m3]

So if you buy a game or movie, you don't really own it. You just paid for the privilege to use it.

In the US, this is the sad truth. It seems the UK, EU, and other countries around the world are far more respecting of the end-user's rights over their content than the land of the free....

 

[the_randomizer]

Then shouldn't DVR's and TIVO's be banned?

They might have made exceptions to that somewhere, but I doubt it. Either way, the people responsible for writing up the DMCA can screw off. What I do with my games, DVDs, music, etc is my business. I don't care what Big Brother says, it's not like they can find out what I do with said mediums anyway. If my copies of movies, games and so on get damaged, why should I have to repurchase it? DMCA regulations be damned, I'll be making personal backups and that's that.

 

[muskieratboi]

As far as Australian copyright law is concerned, you are allowed one digital backup of a copyrighted work you "own" (read:have a license for), regardless of format. The laws do not stipulate Or restrict where you get the backup from.