Piracy or not, I think that's illegal in the USA due to the DMCA.

If the NOCD is a modified executable, I'd consider that (petty) piracy. If it's just a patch containing all original code, it would not be.

I see absolutely nothing morally wrong with circumventing the DRM of a game you have legally bought and paid for. I think most people here feel the same.

There is no moral wrong since you're not cheating the company out of a sale, however there is still a legal wrong and whilst the law may not reflect what you want it to in an ideal world it should still be upheld because its primary position is to defend the developers (and in the end, as gamers, we want this since otherwise no one would work to make the games we enjoy to play).

I'd personally hit the games official forums and ask around and see if there is some alternative way to get the game code you've bought to run.

The Copyright Act of Canada specifically grants the right to crack software (section 30.6.) That's how innocent it is.

I have absolutely no issue with downloading a crack for a game I bought.

The only issue I have when downloading cracks is that I SHOULDN'T HAVE to download one in the first place !

The "no-cd/DRM" patch should be something provided automatically by the publisher some month after the game release... sadly official "no-cd/DRM" patches are a dying breed.

If you own a copy of the game then no, it's not piracy. It may be against the EULA, but those things are typically so ludicrous as to render themselves legally unenforceable anyway.

This is one of the reasons I love Gog I don't have to have a patch or a crack to play the game I allready own :) I agree
I think gog needs a copy of all the games that I have bought in the past and will want in the future so I can buy them hear and never have any more problems with patches or cracks :)

Piracy is if you pirate the game!

Cracking is if you crack the game!

If a pirate buys a treasure chest and buries it. Than he loses the key in a valiant battle against the british armada. Is he a pirate for picking the lock on his own treasure chest?

/rant

Yes. The Chestyright Act forbids circumventing physical chest management. Thank you very much, Stephen Arrrrper.

You should have all the rights to your game that you payed for :) and in that I don't think that is piracy. because the developers still got payed for it.

Not that simple, courts are vetting the DMCA as we speak and have ruled against such black and white readings in the past. Whether it is illegal in the US or not would basically depend on which judge you see and how far up the judicial ladder it goes.

And morally of course nothing is wrong with it, so really who gives a shit in the end.

As most others have said... the INTENT of the law is to protect the company from loss of property and loss of intellectual content. You are depriving them of neither if you crack a game you already paid for and simply play the game without delving into trade secrets and design mechanisms as a result of the crack.

Although some believe the law forbids this in some places... I believe fair uses allows it (also a law). It would be an interesting court case. If the company were to win than precedence would literally forbid us cutting holes in our jeans or painting our cars as companies would then have free reign to dictate the USE of their products AFTER purchase.

But since you bought the game and are bringing no harm to the company, either expressed or implied... I seriously doubt they will both find out, and see any value in pursuing you for doing so. They have quite a bit to lose if they go after an honest customer and don't win to get the precedence on their side. At least the grandmother the RIAA went after had actually done something wrong. (deprived the company of money for a product) and the RIAA still got a black eye. In this case, that isn't happening. They would be quite the public villain.. something they would be smart to avoid even if they THOUGHT they could win.

Agreed. If every CD check and DRM method were patched out even a year after release very few people would ever complain about them. The fact I still have to put my Morrowind CD in to play the game is fucking ridiculous.

Tried using an image of CD with an emulation software? Or this is not the case?