Is game sharing illegal?

Short answer is yes, it's against the Sony User Agreement, and therefor actionable. You're stealing money from Sony, but you're also stealing from the dev of the software in question. Again, so it's actionable.

Accessing content you are not licensed for (ie Game Sharing) is a bannable offense if Sony finds out you're doing it. Game Sharing is people taking advantage of Sony leaving a loophole that you can license stuff to 5 pieces of electronics on an account. This does not mean you are welcome to let your friends have a copy, it's if your machine crashes and you need another copy, or the like. Sharing account info with ANYONE is asking for trouble, from Sony, or the person who has your info whom you might not be friends with forever, if you even were in the first place. And don't expect a stranger to stay true and not source your info to a few OTHER friends.

All the way around, it's a not-good-to-do thing. Not even with family members. They'll screw you too, sometimes.

Yes it is, but who's gonna stop you from doing it? Crossing on a red light is illegal you don't see no cops stoping you for doing it. Unless you do it in their exact face and even then they'll let you go, unless they're looking for a reason to bother you.

So if I lend my friend my copy of Fifa 12 I'm actually breaking the law?

technically but know one would know and if they found out they would do nothing but a warning as its not a big offence, most people dont even know

i always get some games from friends and lend them some but i only recently found out its "bad"

So if I lend my friend my copy of Fifa 12 I'm actually breaking the law?

The_Gaming_Baby

Which is second only to the conception of the on-line pass for sheer crass stupidity!

Yes it is, but who's gonna stop you from doing it? Crossing on a red light is illegal you don't see no cops stoping you for doing it. Unless you do it in their exact face and even then they'll let you go, unless they're looking for a reason to bother you.

Joedgabe

This is a horrible example. Cops will stop you for running a red light, whether on foot or in a vehicle. Of course if you do it when they can't see they won't stop you, because...they didn't see it. I'm not trying to take some moral high ground here, but this was just an absurd statement. If you jaywalk or drive through a red light and a cop cites you for it, it's not because he was looking for a reason to bother you. It's because you blatantly broke the law.

i don't think it is.

i downloaded a few ps1 classics. when i push triangle on the game it says "this content may be used by other people other than the content owner" (or something along those lines). ps1 classics can be downloaded onto anyone's psp an infitnite amount of times too.

What I don't get is around launch..

Sony announced that players who download games from PlayStation's online shop can share them on up to five other PS3 machines.

If a player logs into his PlayStation 3 account on a friend's system, he can download any game he has already purchased. "You can send that content to four other friends for that initial investment," said Tretton. "We want to get the game in as many hands as possible."


I have looked and I can never find a thing from Sony stating it's 100% forbidden. I wouldn't do it anyways but I know people that have from the start and they have never had any issues.

weird thing is sony was endorsing game sharing in the begining

I was pretty sure it was allowed.

So if I lend my friend my copy of Fifa 12 I'm actually breaking the law?

The_Gaming_Baby

Yes it is, but who's gonna stop you from doing it? Crossing on a red light is illegal you don't see no cops stoping you for doing it. Unless you do it in their exact face and even then they'll let you go, unless they're looking for a reason to bother you.

Joedgabe

If I might quote Red from "That 70s Show":

"Without observance of laws, we're nothing but monkeys in a tree, flinging crap at one-another."

:lol:

While I AM a monkey, I prefer to think that there's a higher set of function where we chimps know what's right, and we sure know what's wrong.

Look, do what you think is correct, but if you were feeding your family off the income of the hard work you had just done, would you want people sharing it freely or would you rather that people color inside the lines so that you get your twenty cents per copy? It's a fairly straight-forward moral decision...

weird thing is sony was endorsing game sharing in the begining

xxgunslingerxx

[QUOTE="The_Gaming_Baby"]

So if I lend my friend my copy of Fifa 12 I'm actually breaking the law?

MushroomWig

Phew. Good to know. I let my friends borrow the actual game discs to try the game out to see if they want to buy their own copies but I don't allow my friends access to my PSN downloads.

[QUOTE="MushroomWig"][QUOTE="The_Gaming_Baby"]

So if I lend my friend my copy of Fifa 12 I'm actually breaking the law?

GamerChick2083

Phew. Good to know. I let my friends borrow the actual game discs to try the game out to see if they want to buy their own copies but I don't allow my friends access to my PSN downloads.

[QUOTE="Joedgabe"]

Yes it is, but who's gonna stop you from doing it? Crossing on a red light is illegal you don't see no cops stoping you for doing it. Unless you do it in their exact face and even then they'll let you go, unless they're looking for a reason to bother you.

CDuG

This is a horrible example. Cops will stop you for running a red light, whether on foot or in a vehicle. Of course if you do it when they can't see they won't stop you, because...they didn't see it. I'm not trying to take some moral high ground here, but this was just an absurd statement. If you jaywalk or drive through a red light and a cop cites you for it, it's not because he was looking for a reason to bother you. It's because you blatantly broke the law.

Damn that must suck wherever u live. Over here in NYC, you can walk on a red light in front of the cops in their car and they won't care.

On topic, I would say if it is truly illegal, then why give the ability to have us gameshare? Sony could easily have taken care of this, no excuses.

Like others have stated before, if Sony really had an issue with it, they would stop it (much like Linux on PS3). Plain and simple.

[QUOTE="Joedgabe"]

Yes it is, but who's gonna stop you from doing it? Crossing on a red light is illegal you don't see no cops stoping you for doing it. Unless you do it in their exact face and even then they'll let you go, unless they're looking for a reason to bother you.

MonkeySpot

If I might quote Red from "That 70s Show":

"Without observance of laws, we're nothing but monkeys in a tree, flinging crap at one-another."

:lol:

While I AM a monkey, I prefer to think that there's a higher set of function where we chimps know what's right, and we sure know what's wrong.

Look, do what you think is correct, but if you were feeding your family off the income of the hard work you had just done, would you want people sharing it freely or would you rather that people color inside the lines so that you get your twenty cents per copy? It's a fairly straight-forward moral decision...

Oh, and tc: if it were illegal then you wouldn't be able to rent games either and Gamefly wouldn't exist. Which is essentially borrowing for a fee. So no, it's not illegal.

Friends logging onto your account and downloading already bought games to their devices is allowed as well. Upto to five machines if memory serves.Victorious_Fize

Oh, and tc: if it were illegal then you wouldn't be able to rent games either and Gamefly wouldn't exist. Which is essentially borrowing for a fee. So no, it's not illegal.

junglist101

So what if someone is at your house and plays one of your games?? Is it only legal if the original owner is present lol.

It's not illigal to share games:x

That falls into the borrowing section because again there is not an unpayed copy involved. That's not the kind of game sharing that we are talking about.Reptylus

You really want it to be illegal don't you :P

You should think before you write. Buying and selling games is not game sharing. Reptylus

Eh...clearly logic doesn't work on you so I'm going to end this discussion and let you continue to believe what you think is correct.

So if you want to borrow a game from me it's illegal.junglist101

[QUOTE="Victorious_Fize"]Friends logging onto your account and downloading already bought games to their devices is allowed as well. Upto to five machines if memory serves.Reptylus

I know that it's originally meant for your comfort and yours only, but as I said before, Sony can't help it. Whether the other machine belongs to you or your friend, how will Sony know? Over here (region 2, Middle East), you have no legal documents to back your ownership of the device other than the ones used on a warranty or retail chian based services. So if it's similar over there, then what's there to stop him? It could just be his friend borrowing his device just for a very long time. ;)

Who cares? Its not that big of a deal. The devs make enough bloody money as it is.

What sucks is we're limited to 5 accounts. My PS3 has broken down three times and I've gotten it replaced every time. If it crashes again, and it's the 80 GB backwards compatable model, I'll only have one live left.

I'll just sum it up.

Loaning games to friends, or allowing them to borrow your copy, is LEGAL.

Selling your game copy to another person is LEGAL.

Renting your game copy for monetary value is ILLEGAL.

Giving DLC to another via signing into a friend's console is ILLEGAL. (It's a grey area that Sony is currently not cracking down on).