Shipping from Germany

posted on March 23rd, 2010, 3:03 am

Only problem is copyrights don't care how old a game is or if it still makes a company money or not, until that copyright expires it is illegal to copy or download the game, other than for personal backup purposes if you already own it, but even that's illegal in some places.

posted on March 23rd, 2010, 3:38 am

That may be true, but companies have to be first, able to "catch" the person, and then be willing to waste time and money on a trial or at least lawyers for something which they have no real interest in anymore and the defense of which won't bring them any more profit. Since they aren't actively selling the game anymore stopping this "piracy" won't get them any more profit, so they have no incentive to pursue legal action; any money they beat out of you for downloading it will just end up covering their legal costs and probably won't add to their profits.

It's a bit like photocopying an entire novel and giving it to your friend. Will the publishing company know? No. Can they stop you? No. Will they care after the fact? No.

I'd guess that 70-80% of the people who will buy any given game or book or music album will do so within a year (or two, which is generous) after it's released. Publishing companies will make most of their profits in that first year or so. After that there will be sort of a trickle which might go on for a couple of years more while the stragglers catch up; that's probably about another 10% of those who will buy it. Now we're up to four or five years and the publishing company will move on, in the case of games, that's about the turn around time for sequels, but even that's long these days. The publishers may have reached the point that they have stopped production of new units and that final 10% of potential buyers will either buy a used copy or find it through a reseller who might have bought it as unsold surplus from a retailer.

I know this is a contentious issue but there seems to be a very distinct line between theory and reality. In theory it's illegal to download the game before the copyright expires. The reality is that it happens all day every day and has been happening for the last seven or eight years and no one has tried to stop it. The same goes for any outdated software, just Google something like Windows 2000, you'll get thousands of results and Microsoft won't really try to stop you because they aren't making any profits on Windows 2000 and haven't for the last eight years or so, and thus have no incentive to spend money on a lawsuit just to stop someone from downloading a defunct piece of software. The only reason they would bother is so that they could force people to spend money and upgrade to their newest version.

Ultimately I wouldn't worry too much about it. I doubt anyone will come after you because of it.

posted on March 23rd, 2010, 5:10 am

For me its an issue of conscience.  I want to own what I play.  I've got one copy of the game already, but would like another so I can play with some friends locally.  I grabbed the ST: Action Pack off of Bonanzle for $40 shipped, which is reasonable considering it came with 3 games.  I'll just wait around until I find another at a similar or lower price.  I'd rather do that then try to justify myself for illegally downloading it or encouraging others to do so.

posted on March 23rd, 2010, 9:19 am

i agree with Thenolos..

i want to own at least all the games i play online, although i've been disapointed with some of the more recent releases bundled with a lot of copyright protection: i.e. Command and Conquer - Red Alert 3 (which doesn't have a LAN mode)


sadly it is because of people illegally obtaining copies of games that the manufacturers feel obliged to add in things such as starforce etc.. that affect all of the gamers

[Selor Kiith]

posted on March 23rd, 2010, 9:30 am

Last edited by Selor Kiith on March 23rd, 2010, 9:32 am, edited 1 time in total.

They would do it even if there wasn't any piracy...
You know with all these.. "Piracy protection thingies" one mostly cannot sell it again so everyone HAS to get a new copy and that means Money... that is enough to consider such things like DRM, Starforce, SecuRom...
I read somewhere that EA considers more things AGAINST second hand games (like paying extra if you want DLC that was free for any new copy etc.) because they deem it as "critical" to their gainings...

I'd say the whole Piracy thing is overrated a lot and is just an excuse to pursue questionable things to get more money...

posted on March 23rd, 2010, 3:19 pm

For me its an issue of conscience.  I want to own what I play.  I've got one copy of the game already, but would like another so I can play with some friends locally.  I grabbed the ST: Action Pack off of Bonanzle for $40 shipped, which is reasonable considering it came with 3 games.  I'll just wait around until I find another at a similar or lower price.  I'd rather do that then try to justify myself for illegally downloading it or encouraging others to do so.

If you have a good copy of A2 and just want to play with some buddies consider using a no-cd patch. It is legal.

sadly it is because of people illegally obtaining copies of games that the manufacturers feel obliged to add in things such as starforce etc.. that affect all of the gamers

And its because of things like starforce that the no-cd fixes were invented

posted on March 23rd, 2010, 4:17 pm

3. @Suralc: Where did you find Armada 2 at Saturn/Media Markt/Real? That was years ago, haven't seen any of the two Armada games for years there at different cities.

Ah...fleetops.net is hosted in germany? xD

bought this yesterday for a friend in braunschweig in the schloss arkaden bei saturn:

posted on March 23rd, 2010, 4:56 pm

Yep, the Fleet Operations development team is German, except Zeich

posted on March 23rd, 2010, 5:06 pm

where's zeich from?

posted on March 23rd, 2010, 6:14 pm

Mars 

posted on March 23rd, 2010, 8:47 pm

I'd say the whole Piracy thing is overrated a lot and is just an excuse to pursue questionable things to get more money...

The piracy thing is overrated and it is all about the money. There is never any question about who made the game or wrote the book or sang the song, we all know, that's why we went and got it (DUH ). It's just another way for publishers to milk as much profit out of their followers, err... customers as possible.

posted on March 23rd, 2010, 9:01 pm

where's zeich from?

He goes to U-PEN, so I would assume Pennsylvania