Are things that enable piracy allowed?

[Helpful Tech Witch]

Im just wondering, since you cant discuss things like piracy on the fourm, can you talk about things that enable piracy, such as homebrew, cfw, ect. I was wanting to ask a question about psp cfw, but wanted to be on the safe side.

[Radium_Angel]

4 minutes ago, HelpfulTechWizard said:

Im just wondering, since you cant discuss things like piracy on the fourm, can you talk about things that enable piracy, such as homebrew, cfw, ect. I was wanting to ask a question about psp cfw, but wanted to be on the safe side.

I know we are allowed to discuss Hackintoshes now, so...perhaps?

[Helpful Tech Witch]

2 minutes ago, Radium_Angel said:

I know we are allowed to discuss Hackintoshes now, so...perhaps?

I wanted to be on the safer side. Plus if it is, maybe it should be added to the comunity standards.

[Radium_Angel]

1 minute ago, HelpfulTechWizard said:

I wanted to be on the safer side. Plus if it is, maybe it should be added to the comunity standards.

You'd have to hit up a Mod for that. I have no say so in that matter

[dizmo]

It'd probably help if you tagged some of the deciding bodies.

@Spotty @LogicalDrm @PCGuy_5960

[AndreiArgeanu]

Homebrew should be perfectly fine as long as you're not speaking of sourcing ROM's and what not.

[Helpful Tech Witch]

Probably should @wkdpaul too.

[WkdPaul]

Homebrew is fine, same with jailbreaking or rooting.

 

The only thing we don't allow is help with piracy, like a hackintosh thread that we locked recently. To legally obtain MacOS, you need a Mac, and someone was asking how the get the OS through a Windows PC, this unfortunately falls into piracy.

 

But if he already had the DMG on a Mac, it wouldn't have been an issue.

 

Same with homebrew, jailbreaking or rooting, if you're only asking how or if it can be done, it's fine. If you're looking into getting links to paid apps that were modded to run for free, that's again not possible as it's piracy ... And a bad idea since the app was modded, you can't be sure it's clean.

Edited October 23, 2020 by wkdpaul

[Helpful Tech Witch]

7 minutes ago, wkdpaul said:

Homebrew is fine, same with jailbreaking or rooting.

 

The only thing we don't allow is help with piracy, like a hackintosh thread that we locked recently. To legally obtain MacOS, you need a Mac, and someone was asking how the get the OS through a Windows PC, this unfortunately falls into piracy.

 

But if he already had the DMG on a Mac, it wouldn't have been an issue.

 

Same with homebrew, jailbreaking or rooting, if you're only asking how or if it can be done, it's fine. If you're looking into getting links to paid apps that were modded to run for free, that's again not possible as it's piracy ... And a bad idea since the app was modded, you can't be sure it's clean.

May I suggest that this should be mentioned next time there is a Comunity Standards update? 

[WkdPaul]

8 minutes ago, HelpfulTechWizard said:

May I suggest that this should be mentioned next time there is a Comunity Standards update? 

well, to be fair, jailbreaking, rooting and homebrew aren't piracy (despite what big corps are saying).

 

Also, the Community Standard is left vague so that we can avoid loopholes, before that we had the "code of conduct", old timers will know what I'm talking about!!

 

It used to be very detailed, but caused issues because of that ; it was painful and annoying to go through, and if one small thing was forgotten, then it meant it wasn't against the rules, even though it was against the spirit of the rules.

[PlayStation 2]

You don't have to use things like homebrew software and rooting for piracy. I use a Free McBoot memory card on my PS2 to use apps that allow me to play imports that I own. 

The mods really aren't against anyone talking about that, so long as what you talk about doesn't actively involve things like breaking copy protection, least from my experiences. If you just want some answers on flashing firmware onto your PSP, I'd be surprised if they'd take the thread down unless you were explicitly going to use it for piracy.

[whm1974]

44 minutes ago, AndreiArgeanu said:

Homebrew should be perfectly fine as long as you're not speaking of sourcing ROM's and what not.

What about Legal ROMs? Or is there such a thing?

[TetraSky]

18 minutes ago, wkdpaul said:

Also, the Community Standard is left vague so that we can avoid loopholes, before that we had the "code of conduct", old timers will know what I'm talking about!!

I 'member! It was also so damn long. Pretty sure no one ever read it all before and it was constantly being modified as things happened.

Thanks to the waybackmachine, we can still see it, too.
November 4th, 2014:

Spoiler

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5 minutes ago, whm1974 said:

What about Legal ROMs? Or is there such a thing?

The only "legal ROMs", would be if you yourself ripped them off your the games you owned, by yourself, as a personal backup. And even there, it depends on your country. I believe it was legal to do so in Canada last I checked. Might have changed in the last couple years, I dunno.
Any ROMs obtained through any other means, like downloading them off the internet, even if you did own the original, is illegal.

[AndreiArgeanu]

Just now, whm1974 said:

What about Legal ROMs? Or is there such a thing?

If we're speaking of backup ROM's then yes. For example taking your Wii games and making backups that you can put on a USB and play on your Wii is OK. But downloading them, is definitely piracy.

[Donut417]

Just now, AndreiArgeanu said:

If we're speaking of backup ROM's then yes. For example taking your Wii games and making backups that you can put on a USB and play on your Wii is OK. But downloading them, is definitely piracy.

Depends on the laws of your country. The law doesn't always allow you to make a "backup" copy. 

[AndreiArgeanu]

1 minute ago, Donut417 said:

Depends on the laws of your country. The law doesn't always allow you to make a "backup" copy. 

Which countries have laws that do not allow you to make backups for personal use?

[Donut417]

4 minutes ago, AndreiArgeanu said:

Which countries have laws that do not allow you to make backups for personal use?

Im pretty sure the DMCA does not allow for this. I know for a fact its illegal to break any type of encryption thats put on to a disk to prevent it from being copied. Remember the US has some of the strictest copy right laws in existence because Copy right protections are part of the US constitution. 

[Chiyawa]

Piracy is something that the big company made out. Who needs to jail break their iPhone if Apple didn't lock it? Who needs to pirate a movie, shows or songs when the price is cheap? Who need to download ROMs when company allows their old games to be played in computers without charging a staggering of fees (either using their own software or third parties one)? So until now, I say piracy is just what the big companies make up. We don't really need to pirate anything if all these resources were available, do we?

[whm1974]

4 minutes ago, Donut417 said:

Im pretty sure the DMCA does not allow for this. I know for a fact its illegal to break any type of encryption thats put on to a disk to prevent it from being copied. Remember the US has some of the strictest copy right laws in existence because Copy right protections are part of the US constitution. 

To my Knowledge The US Supreme Court has never made a ruling on the DMCA. But I could be wrong. Just follow the Law... 

[Helpful Tech Witch]

9 minutes ago, Donut417 said:

Im pretty sure the DMCA does not allow for this. I know for a fact its illegal to break any type of encryption thats put on to a disk to prevent it from being copied. Remember the US has some of the strictest copy right laws in existence because Copy right protections are part of the US constitution. 

I know in the US I am allowed to rip a iso to a hard disk. I dont know about breaking encryption, i thought it would be.

[ausham]

5 minutes ago, Chiyawa said:

Piracy is something that the big company made out. Who needs to jail break their iPhone if Apple didn't lock it? Who needs to pirate a movie, shows or songs when the price is cheap? Who need to download ROMs when company allows their old games to be played in computers without charging a staggering of fees (either using their own software or third parties one)? So until now, I say piracy is just what the big companies make up. We don't really need to pirate anything if all these resources were available, do we?

Some also pirate because it's a hassle free way to get things, no drm, no accounts and what not.

[Donut417]

4 minutes ago, whm1974 said:

To my Knowledge The US Supreme Court has never made a ruling on the DMCA. But I could be wrong. Just follow the Law... 

No, I dont think the DMCA ever made it to the supreme court. Why would it? Like I said, copy right protections are GUARANTEED in the US constitution. 

 

Quote

"[the United States Congress shall have power] To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_Clause

The supreme court really cant rule against that. 

 

10 minutes ago, Chiyawa said:

Piracy is something that the big company made out. Who needs to jail break their iPhone if Apple didn't lock it? Who needs to pirate a movie, shows or songs when the price is cheap? Who need to download ROMs when company allows their old games to be played in computers without charging a staggering of fees (either using their own software or third parties one)? So until now, I say piracy is just what the big companies make up. We don't really need to pirate anything if all these resources were available, do we?

I do agree. Companies bring it on themselves. 

 

 

While I dont condone breaking the law. People will continue to pirate as they see fit. The fact is, they cant stop piracy. Its very hard to bring criminal charges for piracy. At the most companies can do civil suits, but that costs money and time. 

[Helpful Tech Witch]

3 minutes ago, Donut417 said:

 

Ok, are you a pirate if you buy a movie and remove that whole thing? You own it, you can do with it as you please (for personal use)

[TetraSky]

1 minute ago, Donut417 said:

Its very hard to bring criminal charges for piracy. At the most companies can do civil suits, but that costs money and time.

 

That's why the typically target pirates who UPLOAD instead of the ones who simply DOWNLOAD.

 

I don't know about the US, but in Canada, there a maximum amount they can "sue" you for, in regards to piracy. I believe it's something like $5000 (and that's the MAX, they are highly likely to not be awarded that much).

Making it totally not worth it for them as it would cost more in lawyers to make their case and even there, it's flimsy at best since all they would have is an IP.

 

10 minutes ago, ausham said:

Some also pirate because it's a hassle free way to get things, no drm, no accounts and what not.

Yeaaaah, those are just excuses pirates give. Game pirates just don't want to pay and get free shit.

At least movie pirates can have better reasons, like how a certain streaming service is not available in their country and how the physical movie is filled with crap... But then again, you can usually still just "rent" a movie online these days very easily for a few dollars, regardless of your location.

[Donut417]

Just now, HelpfulTechWizard said:

Ok, are you a pirate if you buy a movie and remove that whole thing? You own it, you can do with it as you please (for personal use)

You own the disk, not the movie. Legally speaking you are NOT allowed to break any Encryption/DRM on the disk.