Legal backups?

[Ziggy]

He explains to me that in the event I beat it, the game could be returned to Amazon, thus equating to something no less than piracy.

That's something that didn't even happen yet!

In the event you decide to return the unopened game to Amazon, then morally/legally you should delete the game ROM you've downloaded. Otherwise, I don't see a problem with having a "backup" of a sealed game that you own.

[noiseredux]

OMG my favorite kind of thread. I'm gonna go make some popcorn, but don't wait for me guys!

[Ziggy]

Nah, my favorite kind of thread is Mac VS PC

[fastbilly1]

As said, legal grey area. But I do the same thing, buy and keep sealed while playing backups, but that is more because I dont have the shelf space anymore.

[noiseredux]

As said, legal grey area. But I do the same thing, buy and keep sealed while playing backups, but that is more because I dont have the shelf space anymore.

wait you don't have the shelf space, but you buy the game? I'm lost.

[fastbilly1]

wait you don't have the shelf space, but you buy the game? I'm lost.

Shelf space is more for display purposes. If I have a game on the shelf, it wont be sealed. It will be in a condition that can be played, as intended. The only exceptions are old pc games and Zelda titles. Since I dont have space currently, I dont really have a reason to open them and put them out. Granted since I am running all of the games off of a harddrive anyway, it doesnt really matter...

[Inazuma]

If you want to go by the law, I'm pretty sure you aren't allowed to make or use any backups whatsoever.

Laws aside, strictly morally speaking, I don't see a problem with what you are doing. You bought the game new, so you are supporting the creators of the game and the store selling it. After that, if you want to play a copy of the game, it does no harm to anyone.

I've said this many times before but the only time this kind of thing is actually bad is when someone who would normally buy the game, chooses instead to download a free copy of it.

For example, I plan on buying Star Fox 64 3D when it comes out. If a 3DS flash cart comes out at the same time, I will still buy the game. However, if I decided to use the flash cart instead, that would be wrong because Nintendo wouldn't get the money they would have gotten otherwise.

The problem with this is it's pretty much impossible to tell the difference. Only you know for sure if what you are doing is right or wrong. No one else can read your mind and see if you are lying or not.

So my advice for you is to stop worrying about laws so much and keep doing what you feel is morally right.

[noiseredux]

here's where it gets awesome!

[Arbitern1]

I always download a game and if i like it enough i will buy a physical copy.

[ZeroAX]

You know, only twice did I need backups of games I owned. 1 was physically broken by a person in my family (super smash bros melee), the other though was a fault of the horrible packaging, which cracked the disks in the middle (first PC version of GTA San Andreas bought at 50€).

In fact I thought it was my fault, so I bought the game again (at 30€), only to have it crack once more. Finally they released the game with a normal case, and I bought it for a 3rd time (at 20€). Perhaps I should have contacted them for a new copy of the game, or a consumers organization if they refused, but I didn't bother.

As you see backups just didn't do it for me, I had to have the original pretty disk. So if I want to pirate GTA5 to see if it's any good, I have every ethical right to do so . 3 copies of GTA SA and 1 copy of the horrible GTA4