Is it legal to download games using the bittorrent abilities?

[SpikiestDog2]

I just wanted to know if it was legal to download games using bittorrent? What are your thought on the subject?

Thanks

[ghost2003]

Why would bittorrent make it legal? Any pirated software is illegal, no matter how you download it.

[SpikiestDog2]

Good point. I sbscribed to a downloading program that said it was legal to dowload music, movie, games, and TV shows foe a $30 a year fee. When I subscribed, all I got was a list of web sites I can go to to dowload the stuff. Is this still illegal even though I paid $30?

Thanks for the reply. I only want to do what is right, even if that means spending more money.

[bigandy]

Most likely it is still illegal. My bet is that having you pay $30 bucks and giving you links to download the stuff is just a scam to make some money.

[palloco]

Downloading games you have is legal

These sites where you have to pay to download music are legal, because they had payed a lot of authors to do that. Companies like Apple, AMD and napster do that.

[Force Flow]

The only online service that I know of where you can download games is under steam.

Fileplanet and other similar sites have services where you can signup to have access to higher bandwidth servers for freeware/shareware downloads, but that's about it.

The $30 you paid for the downloading illegal, copyrighted pieces of software is illegal.

Heck, If you paid $45 for a copy of a windows CD from some shady 3rd party distributor, does that make the software legal? Just because you pay some sort of fee doesn't make it legal no matter what the site where you get it says. Always buy from reputable distributors to ensure you are getting legal goods.

palloco, downloading emulated games made for game consoles is legal as long as you have the game cartridge, but with today's piracy movement, the modern game you are downloading (doom3, far cry, halo2, etc) is not a legal copy. It is a cracked version of someone's personal copy, or a copy stolen directly from the game manufacturer or developer.

It is legal, however, to make yourself a backup copy of your software's CD. It is not legal to distribute a copy in any form, be it digital or on a CD/DVD. The backup copy is for personal use only.

Apple, napster, wal-mart, newegg all sell legal music/software. AMD is a hardware company, and does not.

[RayH]

Paying $30 for information that you could have gotten for free is not illegal. In fact, it's very much promoted in this country (US). It's called "good business."

The program Bit Torrent is tryng to stand on the "Sony Betamax" ruling that essentially says that if there are legitimate uses for something, it can't be outlawed just because people can find an illegal use for it. That is, the Sony Betamax could be used to record both legal and illegal products.

The problem with the Bit Torrent search servers is that they are pointing to illegal uses. Other P2P programs just say, "I don't know what's being traded!" "I don't know if the material is copyrighted!" "I don't know if the file name is in fact that product!"

[mystvearn]

downloading games are legal if:
you own the game
the game is a freeware/abandonware.

A good site would be home of the underdogs. Google it, they have lots of free games.

[9600baud]

Originally Posted by RayH The program Bit Torrent is tryng to stand on the "Sony Betamax" ruling that essentially says that if there are legitimate uses for something, it can't be outlawed just because people can find an illegal use for it. That is, the Sony Betamax could be used to record both legal and illegal products.

Wonderful point. Just because an automobile can be used to rob a bank or run someone over doesnt mean it should be banned. Just because a bat can be used to kill someone doesnt mean it should be outlawed. Of course try to tell that to the RIAA etc...

Back to your point BT doesnt make it legal or illegal. Its totally up to the site. If they're letting you d/l share/freeware u can thumb your nose at the officers. But i doubt thats the case

[SpikiestDog2]

Whew... After a long struggle, I finally got my money back. And thanks to the quick responces, I did not download anything thinking it was legal. Thanks to everyone who has posted on this subject. This will help a lot of other people from making an honest mistake.

[sataraid0]

If you are into rpg games as I am, you can go to this site: http://www.morrowind.com/downloads/downloads_games.htm

and download the original version of The Elder Scrolls: ARENA

It is the forerunner of Morrowind. Played it many years ago on a win 95 machine. They give you specfic instruction on how to run it in dos on win XP.

Kinda neat to compare how far game have come over the years.

Oh, and by the way, SpikiestDog2, it is totally legal and ligit. lol

Regards.................................Sterling

EDIT: By the way, sure glad you were able to get your money back.

[Force Flow]

Originally Posted by sataraid0 Oh, and by the way, SpikiestDog2, it is totally legal and ligit. lol

Is this in jest, or are you stating a fact? If you are, I'm interested to see what kind of proof there is to this claim.

[mjkovis]

Originally Posted by Force Flow Is this in jest, or are you stating a fact? If you are, I'm interested to see what kind of proof there is to this claim.

I believe he was meaning by downloading the game from a link within his post is 'totally legal.' I think the LOL was in jest.

AK

[sataraid0]

I am serious, just go to the link and find out for yourself.

The lol was in reference too yourself being worried about pirating software.

I assure you, there is nothing wrong with downloading the game "Arena" from that site. They are giving the game away, as it is a classic and one of the 1st rpg games with many features not experienced before, at that time.

As I said before, I did buy that game and played it many years ago and found it to be the most tech advanced at that time. Believe the game was from around 1995 or so.

So, go get it and enjoy without worry..................Sterling

PS...........if ya like it, maybe you will be interested in purchasing Morrowind or the new one, "Oblivion" which they plan on releasing soon. Sorry about the misunderstanding.

[shazam]

If you are concerned if bittorrent is legal go to www.wikipedia.org. search peer to peer (p2p) and read for your self. I found no where that it was illegal or hijacking. But there is action going on to stop it. If this bill is passed it could be very damaging and not only to bittorrent.

[rightcoast]

It's pretty simple, bittorrent changes nothing.

99.9 percent of the music, games, movies, applications etc, on the metasites are cracked or pirated, not open source or under creative commons. Downloading them can get you sued. Using bittorrent to DL a Linux flavor for instance is one legal use of it.

It was not illegal to charge 30 bucks for the links to free trackers...just immoral. It is a common scam like the mp3 site scams a couple years back.

[Force Flow]

The P2P software is completely legal; it's what you're doing with it that may not be.

[shazam]

Force Flow I agree. P2P is legal. The RIAA and the MPAA have a bill before congress called the Induce Act to do away with P2P. This bill is so brod in scope that it could do away with all CD burning software.