I kind of wonder how pirating a game I have a legal license to would work in court. For example, let’s say a studio dropped support for a game’s DRM without stripping the DRM first. I still have a legal license to the game, I just can’t play it because of a technical limitation.
If I download a version with the DRM stripped, did I break the law? The person who stripped the DRM violated the DMCA, and they didn’t have the right to redistribute it, but I have to legal right to have access to it so possession probably isn’t illegal. AFAIK, copyright protects the work I bought a license to, and AFAIK, a license doesn’t necessarily include the DRM protections (studios can strip that without renegotiating the license).
So I think there’s a sufficient gray area where legal piracy could exist. As in, I downloaded content from someone who pirated it illegally, but I have a legal right to the content so my actions were legal.
I kind of wonder how pirating a game I have a legal license to would work in court. For example, let’s say a studio dropped support for a game’s DRM without stripping the DRM first. I still have a legal license to the game, I just can’t play it because of a technical limitation.
If I download a version with the DRM stripped, did I break the law? The person who stripped the DRM violated the DMCA, and they didn’t have the right to redistribute it, but I have to legal right to have access to it so possession probably isn’t illegal. AFAIK, copyright protects the work I bought a license to, and AFAIK, a license doesn’t necessarily include the DRM protections (studios can strip that without renegotiating the license).
So I think there’s a sufficient gray area where legal piracy could exist. As in, I downloaded content from someone who pirated it illegally, but I have a legal right to the content so my actions were legal.