Quick question about legality

[EMPiRE]

You all forget that it totally depends in which country you are

In the US you fall under the DMCA which prohibits any bypassing of a protection, downloading an image and using it can be intrepid as "bypassing" a protection (it does not matter if you own the software)... strictly seen you are allowed to use it (as they want you to use it) and anything else is/could be illegal!

In Europe there are already a few countries which have passed similar DMCA ruling (EUCD and such) which say the same as the DMCA. In some countries you are not allowed to make a backup of software (=games), not even for personal backup use, so downloading/using an image is/could be illegal...

There are so many different laws that in the end you are not allowed to do anything in most countries and it will get worse in the next few years.

So the worst country to be in now is the US, just look at the MPAA/RIAA sueing US citizens over filesharing

In the near future dealing drugs or even raping someone will give you a lower sentence than violating copyright laws

Big brother is watching you...

[Grumpy]

I had meant to add it does depend on your location.
But the 'majority' of locations does prohibit downloading of games and or software.

[DABhand]

Some ISP's monitor P2P usage by their customers, also Newsgroups, XDCC on IRC, etc. If they feel your always on one of those they will ban your account with them.

Others have a download limit and upload limit per month/day, this is to counteract any P2P sharing.


In countries like Estonia I believe its a serious offense to download any warez or mp3's and its a serious Jail Sentence.


It just depends on your country I suppose.

[Grumpy]

Others have a download limit and upload limit per month/day,

Yes most (if not all) isp's in Australia have download and upload limits on thier broadband accounts.
Dialup does not usually have limits but then the speeds are just not there!

[mupet0000]

If i own a game but i need an image of it as well for mounting or w/e you wanted it for, i would simply put the disc in the drive and dump it to an iso format.

You dont NEED to download it if you own the cd's/dvd.

[Joe Forster/STA]

If you're a pro, having the necessary tools (image reader/burner, protection injector/defeater, EXE decryptor/unpacker etc.) and knowledge (how to use these properly), yes, you can create a working backup of your originals. However, most people who come here lack either or both, thus they can download the mini/medi/maxi images, made by those pros.

[Grumpy]

@Joe
Yes I agree that creating a mini/medi/maxi image can be difficult for the average gamer to create therefore downloading one made by pro's is probably the easiest option.
But the original poster (Slon) was actually asking about downloading 'full' images to use as a backup.