is steam legal?

topicnerdy100

of course...if it wasent 2/3 of the PC gaming population would be breaking the law right now..

No, Steam is actually illegal. As soon as Water (Which is legal in this case) becomes Steam it is now illegal....

Wait, you mean the Steam Client? Oh that is legal and a very good tool for any PC Gamer (As long as you have an Internet connection)

[QUOTE="nerdy100"]topicPinkyimp

of course...if it wasent 2/3 of the PC gaming population would be breaking the law right now..

According to Crytek we are anyway :O!

But yes STEAM is perfectly legal.

Buying games from EB Games isn't legal, is it?

Sheesh at this topic.

It would have been shutdown my the feds by now if it wasn't. All of the other online distribution sites would be gone too.

I would not mind seeing both Valve and Steam go away. Valve has always struck me as being run by people who are far too arrogant for their own good or the good of the PC gaming community. When so many people seem to see PC gamers as a bunch a eliteist snobs that last thing we need is a company that embodies that arrogance as our representatives.

In the future please use your opening statements to elaborate on the thread topic. If I were a moderator I would have shut this thread down for being so vague.

Take a picture of the game discs? , if i remember correctly most cd's had the keys on the cd . take a picture of that and i'm pretty sure Valve thinks it's authentic enough . If you can't take a picture of the discs then you are screwed . And wether or not you have dial up means nothing , because you seem to want to play online anyway . Go here : https://support.steampowered.com/ , make an support account and adress your problem as a cd-key issue and you'll receive your answer shortly . Remeber to include the picture of the disks along with the cd-keys . Good luck

If they simply refuse to help you (which they shouldn't do) you can use your own nations consumer rights against them , giving you the ability to sue them . Valve certainley don't want that so they will certainley help you .

Well , if you're using the older versions Steam is not required . And if you can't find any servers that's probably because most use Steam version , but it might be something with your firewall or something . Because you still can play the games , you just can't register it onto Steam .

Edit: Here's a site with a list of all the non-steam servers (The ones used for the pre-steam version)

http://css.setti.info/servers/list-cs16.php

Actualy, Steam does not sell games. They sell the license to use the game software. Read the EULA in every piece of software you have, It tells you right there you are not purchasing.

Yes, it is.

lol

Dont see in what way it would not be legal.

the software itself is not illegal, but to me the business model of steam to me illegal,

why?:

Steam is software that facilitates DRM.. in different shape or forms.

Steam dictates when you get the updates for a game.

Steam may be the only source for a game update for some game now.

Steam is the only way you to activate your game ( again another form of DRM)

You cannot resell your game because of steam thus cannot gain somewhat money from your initial investment...

Used game reseller stores cannot resell"steamed" games thus losing money.

As you can see if you sit down and think about this, there are benefits but the benefits are only for the game publishers and not for the users.

Steam is control !!!

That is why if i have a choice i will avoid steam like the plague. Who says in the future that steam may start to put in it's own laws on how games are managed or your pc, laws that may go fully against you and your wishes for privacy and how you operate your machine.

Nope i do not like to see one system or company have too much control over my pc...Micro$oft is enough in our daily lives controlling everything on pc's, and we sure as hell do not need more monopoly companies running our show.

I'd ask is steam legal in this regard? I brought Half Life for the PC when originally released. Got Opposing forces, CounterStrike etc. Brought and paid for. I stopped playing Half Life and it's mods for a bit, went to get back into, downloaded the latest patch and what do I find? I can't connect to normal servers. I'm finding myself FORCED to install some piece of crap software (I was on dial up at the time making it more frustrating) Then after installing this piece of crap so I can run games I already own, this pice of **** thing called Steam then tells me my CD key is already registered or in use or some ****. FIx for this problem? I prove I own the CD Key? no can't do that now can I, Valve won't let me, gee I don't have manuals and boxes and **** for most of my software anyways, mean not many keep that **** for 10 years do they? So even if I can prove I own it Valve says I can't.... So how to fix it? Why pay more money ($10 at the time) for a game I already spent $100's on of course. So my question is, is this illegal? IF not why not, sounds like extortion to me, outright theft. making people pay for that whuch they already legally own? But I found a better solution, the Half Life community patch, and an XboX. Well until consoles make you connect to the net to play **** you already own. Half Life 2? I heard nothing but **** about STEAM and non net users having payed over $100 bucks for a game they couldn't use. Me? I waited for the console version and avoided all that ****. If people refused to use these services companies like valve couldn't pull this ****. It'll always make me think twice about buying their products in future or from any other company with such a setup. And they wonder why people resort to "cracked" versions and piracy.....iamdoomed

1) Steam is a great piece of software.

2) Steam isn't forcing itself upon you. There are no "normal" servers. WON got shut down many years ago. Steam is providing you with a service and yet all you do is complain.

3) Half-Life is like $5, stop being such a baby.

4) Same exact thing happened to me. All I had to do was send in a picture of my CD and they promptly gave me another CD Key. The folks at Steam are a great help.

Take a picture of the game discs? , if i remember correctly most cd's had the keys on the cd . take a picture of that and i'm pretty sure Valve thinks it's authentic enough . If you can't take a picture of the discs then you are screwed . And wether or not you have dial up means nothing , because you seem to want to play online anyway . Go here : https://support.steampowered.com/ , make an support account and adress your problem as a cd-key issue and you'll receive your answer shortly . Remeber to include the picture of the disks along with the cd-keys . Good luck

If they simply refuse to help you (which they shouldn't do) you can use your own nations consumer rights against them , giving you the ability to sue them . Valve certainley don't want that so they will certainley help you .

dannenissan2

I didn't even think of that, with any luck you have just enabled me to finish fear 2

Is the day sky blue? Of course it ****ing is! :P

I think you made this topic because you had noting better to do. Steam is obviously legal, or it would not have been allowed to become a company.

if steam didnt exsist then there would be no pc gaming populationvajonah95

Yeah it is.

I have steam, but only for one reason. I bought a retail copy of GTR Evo from Microcenter andI HAD to install steam to be able to play the multiplayer. Steam sucks and I will not use them for games. Why should I be forced to install their client to be able to play a game I purchased from a store? that is the lamest thing on the face of the planet. If you folks want to let a company hold you hostage by your short hairs while you praise the goodnes of the goo they spew to you more power to you. I been gaming way to many years to settle for that crappola. :-D Oh, and before you flame me for my opinion of Steam, save your energy. it falls on deaf ears.

Steam is legal, but cracked Steam clients, that I assume you are talking about and can download many games without buying, is illegal. The only place where Steam is legal is on steampowered, not other XXXSteamz, HaxxSteam or any other stupid named (no those names do not exist but that was an example ;)) Steam clients made by hackers.DanielDust

On the whole I think Steam is ok, but I'm glad there are other vendors to choose from, such as Stardock, GamersGate, and D2D. GamersGate has a good approach to gamers: their policy is "you bought the game, you can download and install it as many times as you need to." That's a really fair shake, imo, as sometimes a glitch can only be resolved with an uninstall/reinstall of software.

[QUOTE="nerdy100"]topicPinkyimp

of course...if it wasent 2/3 of the PC gaming population would be breaking the law right now..

1) Steam is a great piece of software.Bumzur

Whenever I load up Steam my browser will freeze until Steam has finished connecting. Whenever I shut down Steam, it lags my PC up for about 20seconds. I've quit out of Steam games (like Left 4 Dead) and had my PC suddenly restart itself.

I've never had any issues with this PC other than when Steam has been involved.

[QUOTE="Bumzur"]1) Steam is a great piece of software.sircyrus

Whenever I load up Steam my browser will freeze until Steam has finished connecting. Whenever I shut down Steam, it lags my PC up for about 20seconds. I've quit out of Steam games (like Left 4 Dead) and had my PC suddenly restart itself.

I've never had any issues with this PC other than when Steam has been involved.

You cant blame steam for having a bad computer... It's like blaming a game for not working on your PC. If your computer cant handlt running steam, why are you even attempting to run l4d? no wonder your computer restarts itself.

[QUOTE="Bumzur"]1) Steam is a great piece of software.sircyrus

Whenever I load up Steam my browser will freeze until Steam has finished connecting. Whenever I shut down Steam, it lags my PC up for about 20seconds. I've quit out of Steam games (like Left 4 Dead) and had my PC suddenly restart itself.

I've never had any issues with this PC other than when Steam has been involved.

LMAO!!!!.........Poor Blade5555.........I love when they make my point for me.... :)

[QUOTE="sircyrus"]

[QUOTE="Bumzur"]1) Steam is a great piece of software.Nibroc420

Whenever I load up Steam my browser will freeze until Steam has finished connecting. Whenever I shut down Steam, it lags my PC up for about 20seconds. I've quit out of Steam games (like Left 4 Dead) and had my PC suddenly restart itself.

I've never had any issues with this PC other than when Steam has been involved.

You cant blame steam for having a bad computer... It's like blaming a game for not working on your PC. If your computer cant handlt running steam, why are you even attempting to run l4d? no wonder your computer restarts itself.

Don't leap to assumptions, it makes you look foolish.

Not the best way to phrase the question - but I agree, yes Steam is operates illegally The question isn't about illegal downloading! It's about whether Steam operates legally in relation to consumer rights By linking the product to your Steam account and making it impossible to unassign the product key they prevent resale of products. When someone buys the game in a shop there is nothing clearly explaining to the consumer what Steam is and how it works. It hoists itself on their PC and causes endless problems for ebayers who don not realise how Steam operates. If you bought a car from Honda would it be legal if they could disable the vehicle if it was sold second hand? No. Would if be legal if they claimed that overnight the rules of buying cars changed and the smallprint said that you were not buying a car, only 'the license to drive the car'? No. Steam is dressed up as a consumer service, that really exists to combat piracy, and goes on to cheat the consumer and force a poor service upon them that is poorly explained. I dread to think how many Christmas' it has ruined for families with average PC literacy. The willingness of Valve and software publishers to bully and rob consumers is an incredible incentive for software piracy. I have 0% sympathy with games publishers who use Steam and makelife difficult for those who buy legitimate software. BDAMKII

First why did you bump this, and second steam is as legal as it gets. You do not own the right to resale games, you only own the right to play that game. A court decision confirmed that.

Necro thread....