Legality of training?

[Caliber]

i do not own CH! i love the company and am very happy to be associated with them. i do not wish to speak for them but i would tell you that we do not in any way wish to defeat their copy protections or produce trainers that would affect the games online in multiplayer mode. no one is paying CH directly for a specific trainer per se, they are paying for access to a database of overwhelming amounts of codes, trainers, walkthroughts, and media as well as our support for our work. also, the forums provide feedback from the members to the members on how to defeat a level, hardware issues, and other important information regarding the games, and not just PC! we try to get the latest games trained as soon as possible, however we do not want to harm the games companies or defeat their protections in any way in the final trainer we release. my official position is to create custom trainers for the company and to update and support them and troubleshoot any problems that come up along the way. as to what the legal ramifications are regarding any person making and releasing trainers, whether for a company that charges for it's membership or otherwise, i cannot say, but i would hope that we add value and some replayability to the games, not harm the sale of them or the company.

BTW, sheep- when i read --> "thats a progressive promotional upsurge." i had to laugh out loud! very funny way to write that! that's some impressive wordage as i am definitely not the owner! "promotional upsurge"......LOL!

best,
Cal

[sheep]

u know me cali.. just here to keep u giggling

take it easy. ;p

[knightpress]

The legality of this is actually very simple to iron out, in the landmark cases of Lewis Galoob Toys, Inc. v. Nintendo of America, Inc., and the predecessor case of Midway Manufacturing Co. v. Artic International, Inc. the whole groundwork for cheat devices, cheat programs, and general editing of software with or without the developers' approval is 100% legal up until an illegal act is performed with it. That would entail digital theft of software, "phishing", and general mischief of an illegal nature.

As for the editing and cheating itself, that's entirely within the law and now firmly established case law and per the ruling will not allow anyone to abridge "the rights of users to modify copyrighted works for their own use".

This also allowed the free and legal modification of programs to your hearts content, with or without the approval of the developer.

Long story short, the use of trainers falls well within the right to modify a copyrighted work for personal use, and individuals sharing a trainer is perfectly legal because that, as per Galoob v. Nintendo, even if it is a derivative work it falls within "fair use" established within copyright and trademark law and protected by the First Amendment (sorry for any non-U.S. citizens who may not have such coverage).

The tipping point would be if someone was trying to cash in on a game by making a trainer and then attempting to claim some royalty off of the game itself, which of course they are not entitled to and then the misuse of the product rights owned by someone else would then be crossed and a civil matter would arise.

Which brings up the biggest point of all, IF there ever was to be some complaint about trainers(which there won't be because they are plainly protected and 100% legal in every possible way), it wouldn't be "illegal" it would merely be a matter of copyright infringement (and/or trademark), which is a civil matter, and while in a civil arena one could be sued for considerable damages incurred as the case may be, it's not a punishable offense of any magnitude (you could get in considerably more trouble by offending a police officer for instance).