Do not discuss cracked software on these forums

klieber

Subject line pretty much says it all. Regardless of what your personal opinions are about using warez, crackz or whatever, please do not discuss them here. These forums reside in the US of A, which is an inherently litigious society. We Americans love to sue anyone for just about any reason.

Let's not bring down a lawsuit on these poor little forums, OK? We didn't compile the anti-lawsuit option into the kernel for performance reasons so we're not in a position to fight one should it come along.

--kurt
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Syntaxis · Guru Joined: 28 Apr 2002 Posts: 511 Location: London, UK

Interesting...
Okay, I'm not about to discuss any cracked software, but I'm interested in what the legal standpoint on this actually is.
I'm aware I may be treading a fine line here, but hey... Stay your itchy trigger fingers, moderators, if you please. :-)

Are cracks actually illegal? And if so, under what ruling?
I'd always assumed that, provided one's purchased a copy of the software, the use of a crack was perfectly sound, both legally and ethically.
Especially since you sometimes need a crack to ensure that the backup copies of your game will actually run... Or that the game will run under WineX.
I find it odd that highly popular sites like GameCopyWorld would be based in Europe and North America if the legal situation were so uncertain and so dire.
Besides... don't the forums have the standard: "Comments are property of the poster, we accept no responsibility for their content." clause?

For the record: I don't condone software piracy. I purchased every game in my possession.
I'm simply curious. :-)

Everything I just said is my own opinion, and may be complete and utter bullshit. If so, please correct me and set the record straight.
I eagerly await clarification on this contentious issue.

delta407 · Posted: Tue Jul 16, 2002 1:11 am Post subject:

Legally, it's a grey area. People have gotten off the hook, and people have been thrown in jail. The bottom line is that whether it's illegal or not, the folks behind Gentoo could get sued, which is a battle they don't have the resources to fight.
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wulvyrn · n00b Joined: 20 Jun 2002 Posts: 8 Location: Moorhead, MN

any games which run under a crack should be removed from this forum.

note: i own games which run under linux which need a no-cd crack.

my 2 cents.

neuron · Advocate Joined: 28 May 2002 Posts: 2371

gsfgf · Veteran Joined: 08 May 2002 Posts: 1266

Cracks are legal b/c of fair use laws as long as you own the game. Thats not what he means. He is saying no asking about illegal games. Im sure if you use a nocd crack for a game you own its OK, but to be on the safe side i'd not mention that here

klieber · Posted: Mon Jul 22, 2002 12:35 am Post subject:

Folks -- we're not going to get into the fine-grained details about fair use and cracks. We're simply going to avoid discussing them. Whether or not anyone has ever been tossed in jail is similarly irrelevant. ISP feeds have been shut off, lawsuits have been filed and other Very Unpleasant things have occured.

So, we're just going to avoid the whole subject, m'kay?

--kurt
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The problem with political jokes is that they get elected