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General discussion (archive)Paranoia - Meet Disc Backups(28 posts)(28 posts)
(28 posts)
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This is my favourite topic
Posted May 16, 2010
I definitely worry about patches and back them all up. And some of the games I own the downloads of, I've been buying the disk copies of sooner or later.
I recently pirated disk 3 of Doom 3. My spotless disk wouldn't read in disk drives, so I had no other choice but to download the iso.
Posted May 16, 2010
Each game has a nice little folder on an external HD with all the hints, cheats, patches that I run across. Hope to back them up to disc at some point. Now tthat I have a Blue Ray writer may make sense with all the disc space available.
Posted May 16, 2010
Steam Game backups :
Launch Steam App;
Open your Library;
Right-Click the game you want to backup;
"Backup Game Files....";
Make sure it's ticked on the popup;
Next;
Pick a location to make the backup;
Next;
Give it a name, and select media (CD; DVD; Custom - size in MB);
Next;
Wait time dependant on size of game/drive speed.
Job's a goodun.
Posted May 16, 2010
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Darling_Jimmy: Gundato, please look again. We don't like to make false claims around here. ;)
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Gundato: First, it is against the Steam TOS/TOU either way. So that right there is pretty bad.
Either way, with no internet requirement, it is a crack. And it is one that can EASILY be used to pirate the Steam games.
So just do everyone a favor and share it everywhere but here :p

Against the Steam ToS, sure. But legal right takes precedence over that.
In North America for sure you are legally entitled to modify the programs that you purchase for personal use. Nothing says you can't use someone else's program to modify your own or anything.
When a contract argues with a pre-existing law, the pre-existing law wins.(unless they feel like taking it to court and manage to convince a judge to change the law, etc. etc. )
Posted May 16, 2010
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Gundato: First, it is against the Steam TOS/TOU either way. So that right there is pretty bad.
Either way, with no internet requirement, it is a crack. And it is one that can EASILY be used to pirate the Steam games.
So just do everyone a favor and share it everywhere but here :p
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Orryyrro: Against the Steam ToS, sure. But legal right takes precedence over that.
In North America for sure you are legally entitled to modify the programs that you purchase for personal use. Nothing says you can't use someone else's program to modify your own or anything.
When a contract argues with a pre-existing law, the pre-existing law wins.(unless they feel like taking it to court and manage to convince a judge to change the law, etc. etc. )

Never saw that law, and pretty sure there are plenty of laws against reverse engineering (which is sort of required for most non-sanctioned "modifying" :p), but whatever.
Either way, this kind of opens up a can of worms. And, to my knowledge at least, we tend to avoid putting stuff that easily assists in piracy here. And from skimming over that, it looks like it can VERY easily be used as a Steam-crack.
Like I said, ignore the morality and the like. The legality of that is that it violates most of the Steam stuff (and Valve could easily kill your account for using that, if they wanted to), and it sets a bad precedent at this site (do you really want the "100% DRM-Free" service to be full of grey-area piracy? :p).
Posted May 16, 2010
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Gundato: Never saw that law, and pretty sure there are plenty of laws against reverse engineering (which is sort of required for most non-sanctioned "modifying" :p), but whatever.

Yeah, for one, you are legally entitled to make a working back-up of any software you buy, which in some cases requires you to modify the program.
You are also legally entitled to be able to make the program work on any and all PC's you own, regardless of whether all of those computers have a connection to the Internet, so anything that requires any sort of online activation is fair game for removing legally, as are CD checks, as computers don't necessarily have a CD drive, etc.
But you still aren't allowed to sell or distribute free copies of a program in any form, so the laws work the opposite of DRM, trust the consumer not to pirate it and charge them if they get caught doing something illegal. And please note, without the DRM none of these measures would really be necessary.
Posted May 16, 2010
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Lone3wolf: Steam Game backups :

I've actually found it easier to do backups by simply copying the steamapps folder. You can drop it into a fresh install and Steam will pick up where it left off. This also makes it easier to work directly with the game files without Steam, especially if it's a game that doesn't require Steam or you want to crack it to run without Steam.
Posted May 16, 2010
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Lone3wolf: Steam Game backups :

Well but those backup are totally useless unless you reactivate them online with Steam next time you want to use them, their only use is to spare you the re-download time.
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StingingVelvet: Does anyone else do this...

I do the same... most of the time actually.
With the more and more stupid laws being passed everywhere I am starting to archive no-cd crack for the games I own, just in case.
Heck after discovering that some of my DVD movies are no longer readable I am starting to wonder if I shouldn't be creating backup ISO of my game's DVDs...
Post edited May 16, 2010 by Gersen
Posted May 16, 2010
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Gundato: Never saw that law, and pretty sure there are plenty of laws against reverse engineering (which is sort of required for most non-sanctioned "modifying" :p), but whatever.
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Orryyrro: Yeah, for one, you are legally entitled to make a working back-up of any software you buy, which in some cases requires you to modify the program.
You are also legally entitled to be able to make the program work on any and all PC's you own, regardless of whether all of those computers have a connection to the Internet, so anything that requires any sort of online activation is fair game for removing legally, as are CD checks, as computers don't necessarily have a CD drive, etc.
But you still aren't allowed to sell or distribute free copies of a program in any form, so the laws work the opposite of DRM, trust the consumer not to pirate it and charge them if they get caught doing something illegal. And please note, without the DRM none of these measures would really be necessary.

Can you actually cite any of these laws? Because this really reminds me of the usual "DRM Lawyer" crap that gets pulled every time it is discussed.
Either way though, best case scenario: We have something akin to the problem with ROMs. You are (or, at one point were) legally allowed to make a copy of a game you own. But you weren't allowed to bypass the proprietary copy-protection required to copy said cartridge. But people still think that gives an excuse to have ROM sites.
Same thing here. It might be very useful, but it is really not something we should be advertising here.
Posted May 16, 2010
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Gundato: Can you actually cite any of these laws? Because this really reminds me of the usual "DRM Lawyer" crap that gets pulled every time it is discussed.

here
See section 117 of the United States Copyright Act pertaining to computer programs, subsection A 1:
"Making of Additional Copy or Adaptation by Owner of Copy. — Notwithstanding the provisions of section 106, it is not an infringement for the owner of a copy of a computer program to make or authorize the making of another copy or adaptation of that computer program provided that such a new copy or adaptation is created as an essential step in the utilization of the computer program in conjunction with a machine and that it is used in no other manner"
In other words if you purchase a copy of a computer program you are allowed to make it work properly, even though you don't actually own the program itself, just a copy of it. if you need the disc in the drive that can be considered a problem and may wish to remove it in order to get the program to work properly, if you need to use a separate program to get the program you want to use to work (e.g. Steam) that means the program isn't itself working properly, as it doesn't work on a machine without said second program and you may remove the requirement for that program legally because the program doesn't work on it's own with those requirements in place.
Um, my words may be considered more confusing than the actual copyright act, um.....yeah... Anyhow, hope that helps.
Posted May 16, 2010
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Gundato: Can you actually cite any of these laws? Because this really reminds me of the usual "DRM Lawyer" crap that gets pulled every time it is discussed.
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Orryyrro: here
See section 117 of the United States Copyright Act pertaining to computer programs, subsection A 1:
"Making of Additional Copy or Adaptation by Owner of Copy. — Notwithstanding the provisions of section 106, it is not an infringement for the owner of a copy of a computer program to make or authorize the making of another copy or adaptation of that computer program provided that such a new copy or adaptation is created as an essential step in the utilization of the computer program in conjunction with a machine and that it is used in no other manner"
In other words if you purchase a copy of a computer program you are allowed to make it work properly, even though you don't actually own the program itself, just a copy of it. if you need the disc in the drive that can be considered a problem and may wish to remove it in order to get the program to work properly, if you need to use a separate program to get the program you want to use to work (e.g. Steam) that means the program isn't itself working properly, as it doesn't work on a machine without said second program and you may remove the requirement for that program legally because the program doesn't work on it's own with those requirements in place.
Um, my words may be considered more confusing than the actual copyright act, um.....yeah... Anyhow, hope that helps.

Not really. It just says you are allowed to make a copy, which Steam already allows. There is PLENTY of wiggle room there, and nowhere does it say you can bypass the copy protection to do so.
Then there is the question of what we actually own, but that is a different topic all together.
This is a VERY complicated topic, and either way the link provided by the person I complained about (who seems to have just left the thread entirely after posting the crack :p) is about as legal as a ROM site. Simply because that allows you to run the game so long as you have the files. And the interweb lets you get those pretty easy.
You know, just like any crack.
Hence, why I really wish that the guy would just delete the link. Shouldn't link to cracks on this site.
Posted May 16, 2010
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Gundato: Hence, why I really wish that the guy would just delete the link. Shouldn't link to cracks on this site.

True, that he shouldn't.
Posted May 16, 2010
Interesting. I was under the impression a crack modified the game code. No matter. It seems you have forgotten the topic. I posted a relevant response to the OP. Your comments are derailing the main discussion and really belong in a "pretend you know anything about copyright law" thread. I don't wish to participate in this tangent. Cheers. ;-)
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This is my favourite topic
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General discussion (archive)Paranoia - Meet Disc Backups(28 posts)(28 posts)
(28 posts)