Before this gets shut down for being about illegal things, I am asking about games I have paid for (well, basically that is why I feel it isn’t illegal).
My nephew has a playstation 2. He loves it, has about 30 games, and is the age of 6. He doesn’t understand very well about how to take care of CDs. My brother-in-law asked me about this, but I didn’t know. I figured it would be best to come to the best source on the web for an answer.
My brother-in-law wanted to know if there was a way he could backup the discs onto blank ones, or make copies and let his son use those instead of ruining the real game. He is just trying to save a little money by not purchasing the games over and over - they have bought the “Cars” game 3 times now. I understand that a lot of parents would say “You broke that one, you don’t get a new one” but they let their son pick out his own games (within reason) with a set spending limit per month (1-2 games a month/or toys, but usually not anything because it depends on his behavior).
Is there a way to make the discs for him to use? Would it be legal? They don’t want to copy and sell, just for use in one room while the others are stored in the basement so they are safe to use later.
It is legal as far as I know to backup your PS2 games. However to play them back you need to defeat the protection in the PS2. This would go against the DCMA. There is a thread on Cnet
addressing this. I would assume that because CNET is a publicly traded company they would moderate their forums as are done here and would not let a thread that is about illegal actions to remain unlocked.
Is it possible to recondition the scratched discs? I’ve read that many DVD and video game rental shops have a machine that polishes the scratches out of damaged discs.
MannyL - I appreciate your response. I figured there was a reason it would be illegal (or something to that effect) but I really feel bad when they end up wasting the money on the same games…
mks57 - I imagine that would be a good solution for most. I know that one game was broken in pieces though (a no-fault accident - I was in the room, the small but heavy stand broke and fell over and the disk was on the floor nearby - heavy shelfing and wood smash ps2 disc) but I don’t know where to get ahold of a disc repair machine either.
I think the responses in the CNET thread summarizes things pretty well - you can use certain copy softwares to create backups, but to play them you’ll need some combinations of mod chips / boot discs. I’m not certain about the legality of these things, but suffice to say being able to play copied games alone puts it in a moral gray area at the very least.
If you want to keep yourself completely clean of any legal/moral obligations, most game companies should have a service that replaces damaged discs for a fee. It would still cost you about a third of the game’s original cost, though, and it’d be quite a hassle to mail the goods back and forth before you can obtain a new copy of the game.
In the long run, though, you might just want to teach your nephew to handle the game CDs/DVDs carefully - not repurchasing a game that’s been broken through mishandling might be a much better thing to do than buying the same game over and over again, only to have it scratched beyond repair in the exact same manner.
I think you are right, jamus_se. I imagine that once my brother-in-law learns that they can’t legally/morally copy games for him, they will be more strict. They somewhat let him do what he wants with his games (although I don’t agree with this, they feel it is ok, and it is not my place to step in at all) they might change their minds once they realize there isn’t a way to cheaply replace his discs.
Tell your spineless BIL to get a locking box, such as a toolbox, and only allow Sonny Boy to have one or two games out at a time. If he ruins a game, he doesn’t get to play with another one for a set period of time.
Mod chips come in at least two flavors. One allows games to be played on out of region consoles (for example, many RPGs are only released in Japan, but there are American/Canadian fans of the series). As far as I know, these are legal. The other kind allow copied games to be played, and as far as I know, these are illegal. This knowledge is a few years old, I am not a lawyer, etc.
No Legally and Morally they are allowed to make a backup for personal use. Sony prohibits them via a protection routine from playing copied software because the PS2 does not have a way of telling the difference between a legal backup and an illegal copy.
In my opinion there is nothing unethical of playing a backup copy you have the legal rights to and because thats my opinion I will not continue down this path in this forum
I don’t specifically feel there is anything unethical about back up copies for such a reason. I just was relaying his questions - I guess some kids he knew got busted for a lot of pirated movies and he worries about it all the time now. If you want to pit it (as was mentioned upthread) - that is fine, except this is not my opinion, so you would be pitting my brother in law. I have no reason to defend that position, as it is not my own. Also, I believe he meant that if it was definitely stealing/piracy no matter what (illegal or now) he would be a lot more strict about how his son uses the games. Again, not my opinion, but I understand where he is coming from.
I think the disk skins seem to be the best solution, although I love Lynn Bodoni’s solution. Personally, that is the step I would take, but it’s not my home or child, so I have no real say in what they do. I can garuntee that my future-child will have access to games only when approved by a parent just to keep the cost down and stop them from breaking all their own property.
Doling out the games a few at a time is the way to go and if the kid can’t take minimum care of the games, dad needs to change them. I went to house to help someone and all the computer cds where covered with sticky jelly. I told them too bad I can’t help, try buying a new computer. The printer was filled with food also. Good luck with the kid lady.
At the risk of going off on a total tangent, as long as the kid is staying within his gaming budget when buying replacement games, why is this an issue? If the kid is happy spending his parents’ money on the same game and not treating it well, then it seems like the kid is happy with his game, and the parents are spending what they want to.
It seems like the real solution to this is to reduce the kid’s gaming budget. If constantly rebuying the same game doesn’t bother him, he’s probably got too much to spend. Take him down to a disc every two months, and I bet after the first time he has to wait 7 weeks before getting another copy of the game he broke, Junior will become much more careful with them.
And, to address the actual question of the OP: Probably moral to make the copy, probably illegal because it bypasses the copyright restrictions.