[TippeX]

actually altering the executable in any shape or form is against the eula, and also probably some laws in some countries.. a no-cd patch (which patches the executable, either in memory or on disk) is strictly speaking illegal as the eula states no reversing allowed therfore for the patch to exist, the executable would have been reverse engineered/debugged to find where to patch..
like it or lump it, using cracks/no-cd patches or whatever is against the eula and by that its also against the law.. as for the magical right to be able to backup your software, i'd love to know who dreamt that one up as i cant see any legal information about it at all and i have searched.