Titanium DL

[NegaStoat]

Originally Posted by Thulack [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

If you bought EQ at any time you have the right to get digital copies of your purchase. So torrenting EQ if you have bought it in the past is not illegal.

The thread should have died here, as the above is correct. You don't have to be in possession of your CD case or CD's (broken or not). A bank statement showing that you paid for a subscription during the time Titanium was being sold is sufficient. Also, my placing my legally protected digital copy in a manner that allows others to torrent it is not breaking the law - the responsibility falls squarely on those seeking to obtain their own legal digital copies of a previous purchase.

[paulgiamatti]

Originally Posted by NegaStoat [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

my placing my legally protected digital copy in a manner that allows others to torrent it is not breaking the law

Yes it is, that's the definition of unauthorized redistribution. Granted, you'll never actually be prosecuted for uploading & seeding torrents unless you're running a large-scale operation and costing some hawkish corporation a large amount of money, but even if you have a legally purchased copy of Titanium (or anything, for that matter), and you go and download a torrent of it, that would still constitute copyright infringement because when you torrent something you are by definition also sharing it. If you own a bunch of movies and you decide to go download them off the bay without hiding your IP address, sooner or later your ISP is going to get a C&D letter from a big movie company because while you were downloading those movies you were also redistributing them without authorization.

[NegaStoat]

Originally Posted by paulgiamatti [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Yes it is, that's the definition of unauthorized redistribution. Granted, you'll never actually be prosecuted for uploading & seeding torrents unless you're running a large-scale operation and costing some hawkish corporation a large amount of money, but even if you have a legally purchased copy of Titanium (or anything, for that matter), and you go and download a torrent of it, that would still constitute copyright infringement because when you torrent something you are by definition also sharing it. If you own a bunch of movies and you decide to go download them off the bay without hiding your IP address, sooner or later your ISP is going to get a C&D letter from a big movie company because while you were downloading those movies you were also redistributing them without authorization.

All of what you described is valid in the case where software is neither discontinued or abandoned. No one on this planet can currently obtain a digital copy or original copy of the Everquest: Titanium edition of the game through Daybreak, the current holder of the copyright and franchise. The people who did purchase that edition of the game shall not have their right to a digital copy, protected by law, denied to them.

You can spin it as something bad, but the courts take an extremely dim view on anything amounting to trust / monopolies of media in any form and the consumer's rights.

[paulgiamatti]

Originally Posted by NegaStoat [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

All of what you described is valid in the case where software is neither discontinued or abandoned.

It's valid today too. Again, copyright law is agnostic about whether intellectual property is still available through retail, meaning if it came to a lawsuit that wouldn't be a discriminating factor. Simplicity would apply: was copyrighted material acquired or redistributed illegally? If yes, a crime was committed. Hosting and distributing copyrighted software without permission is illegal - it's still unlawful to redistribute copies of old copyrighted software and games, with or without compensation, in any Berne Convention signatory country.

Originally Posted by NegaStoat [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

No one on this planet can currently obtain a digital copy or original copy of the Everquest: Titanium edition of the game through Daybreak, the current holder of the copyright and franchise. The people who did purchase that edition of the game shall not have their right to a digital copy, protected by law, denied to them.

Which is why it isn't illegal for people who legally purchased it to download it off the internet. It's still illegal to torrent it off the internet, because torrenting means redistributing.

Originally Posted by NegaStoat [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

You can spin it as something bad, but the courts take an extremely dim view on anything amounting to trust / monopolies of media in any form and the consumer's rights.

I'm not spinning it as anything, I'm simply stating the facts about copyright law. I don't agree with these laws - I want them to change, and I'm a proponent for the legality of torrenting digital media, especially in the case that it's no longer available on the market. Current copyright law doesn't make sense because in many cases in order to legally reacquire media that you've purchased, someone has to illegally make it available to you. This could be easily fixed in the case of discontinued/abandoned software by updating the DMCA.

[nectarprime]

Are you not aware that you can download files from a torrent without uploading?

[paulgiamatti]

Yes, but leechers are still added to the swarm and in effect help facilitate downloading the torrent by pointing to other seeders. So people who upload nothing and people who upload 20 times what they've downloaded are equally guilty to whatever company decides to record IP addresses in that torrent's swarm.

[nectarprime]

Originally Posted by paulgiamatti [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

So people who upload nothing and people who upload 20 times what they've downloaded are equally guilty to whatever company decides to record IP addresses in that torrent's swarm.

Please point me towards a case where someone was found guilty of distributing copywritten material without actually distributing copywritten material.