No-CD cracks?

Hi guys,

I was wondering what the legality and performance issues I would encounter by using No-CD cracks on my games. I would only use games I fully own and have the disks to, I just much prefer systems to run like they do on LANs (such as Omega Sektor *which 3XS make the systems for*)

I would probably hijack my 160GB SATA drive out my external backup and fit it into my system to store the ISOs too if it was all good and legal to do so.

Games I would think about putting on are games such as :-

UT2004
COD2
COD4
Crysis
CnC Generals/ZeroHour
and probably about 10 others plus my Steam Games :)

Regards/ Richie

P:S// IF AND ONLY IF IT IS LEGAL - Where could I find these cracks and how could I rip the ISO files?

ut2004 does not require a CD (may require the latest patch though)

nor do steam games

as for the general case:
- illegal
+ may speed up game, especially startup time
- may break multiplayer

I have to say that it's usually an s.o.p. of mine to hop over to a well known site which strips DRM/protection from the game executables whenever I buy a new game.

I do not advocate piracy (I've friends who work in the games industry) but I'm not a fan of DRM and other restrictions and when I've paid good money for the product I don't feel guilty doing it. Of course, this is a question for your own conscience really. I've been doing this for some years, I've not run into any major problems en route, the games usually start faster if anything as noted above..

Every UT game has had its 'protection' removed by Epic with the first patch.

Its the publishers that put it on, not them. =>UT2003 online is protected by a CDKey...and how many people play UT for its off-line fun?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by richieuk

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P:S// IF AND ONLY IF IT IS LEGAL - Where could I find these cracks and how could I rip the ISO files?

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As I understand it, such cracks are not legal. They may be morally defensible, and it may well be that nobody is likely to take you to court over it, but they're almost certainly almost all (or all) going
to be illegal.

Most, if not all, rely on modifying the original developer or publisher's code. If they do that, they're going to be illegal. I suppose it's technically feasible to write something that achieves the same result without breaking copyright, but I'm certainly not aware of it being done. Even if it was, there are circumstances in which it would be illegal precisely because it bypasses copy protection technologies.



So, that being the case, no posting of places to get such cracks on here, please.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by richieuk

Games I would think about putting on are games such as :-

UT2004
COD2
COD4
Crysis
CnC Generals/ZeroHour
and probably about 10 others plus my Steam Games :)

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I don't think COD4 needs the disc in, not sure if its multi-player or single for it though
And the unreal games when patched up officially don't need the disc in, at uni we had 25 licences for 2k4 and just used one disc to install them on the computers, each had a different cd key and LANning was fine

SP does require the disc IIRC but MP doesn't (COD4)

It's a very grey area afaik..

I *think* that the DMCA makes them illegal in the USA, and the EU copyright directive has a similar effect in the UK, however I seem to remember from looking into this in the past that it depends how the "crack" works. Sadly owning a game licence or cd/dvd does not make a difference here, it is more to do with what the crack does.

I'm pretty sure that if the crack uses modified game code - for example someone using a hex editor to go through and redirect all the JMP commands for the C-Dilla protection to effectively remove the protection would be illegal as that is modifying the existing game code with the expressed intention of bypassing the protection. This is also the most comman form of "crack", where you have to replace game files.

The other method, which is not really a crack so to speak, is a game loader, which never modifies the game code itself, but patches system memory (either by modifying the contents when loaded, or pre-settings certain states before the game loads). This method does not contravene the EUCD as far as I know,and does not break copyright. It will invalidate your game EULA though, so is just as bad from that point of view.

Bottom line is that they are used at your own risk :) Unlikely to have the police pounding at your door though..