EULA - copying from friends computer not allowed

[Rivka]

Here's how it was explained to me, by one of those corporate lawyer types who handles IP and tech stuff.


A EULA's job is to protect the company utilizing it. It is intentionally written to be as broadly scoped as possible in as many ways as the legal team can think of, just to avoid any loopholes or "gotchas" that can risk the company product. In order to maintain that sort of protection, the legal teams tell customer facing employees that the answer to everything is "follow the EULA". They're not allowed to give an opinion on if something does or does not apply under the EULA, because it is a legal document between the user and the company. The only correct answer, from a legal perspective, is "follow the EULA".


There have been companies burned legally in the past, over company statements saying one thing, and EULAs saying another. A specific case I remember was the one against Linden Lab, makers of SecondLife. Even though the EULA said "You only lease a license to use virtual land from us", all the statement the company made to the public were "Buy this land, and own it!". Welp, judge took ownership to be at face value, decided that each person who bought land in Secondlife legally "owned" it, and anyone who'd had land or items taken away via bans, bugs, etc were due refunds. Ended up costing the company a pretty penny.

 

[Daveson]

Apologies if this is repeated, but I just read the first page.

My first and foremost thought on this, is that the launcher won't even let the game load unless you have the most up to date version anyway, so the whole question is a moot point. Downloads are small anyway, unless you're installing from scratch.

 

[QziQza]

*ninja'd.. /someotherwords

 

[Mohrgan]

Total silliness. A tempest In a tea cup. Threads are fun, and free.

 

[Belsameth]

They can put whatever they want in the EULA and, as pointed out, usually do. They have limited legal standing, however, here in the EU. So yeah, in case of the LAN party I'd say you're more than safe to ignore it.

 

[KellyR]

I see nothing wrong with copying the download so long as each person playing has purchased an account. If FD has their money, what do they care? You still have to login to play. If you haven't purchased the game i.e. an account, you can't play, I don't care what you've downloaded.

 

[kelticfury]

Depending on your network settings the launcher might fail to update or even install the game.

Then change your settings.

 

[Darkwolf]

Why do people interpret EULAs so strictly?

Because it's a legal document, and legal documents will be interpreted strictly _against_ you if required.

Don't get me started on the ridiculousness of EULAs actually having any power.

 

[Lasse B.]

I meant it the "reading too much into it" kind of way. Nobody can forbid you making backups of the programs and documents installed on your computer(s). That's what you're supposed to do since the dawn of computers, and that is also what you should do if you want to keep your sanity.

 

[babelfisch]

So I wa perusing the EULA the other day when I noticed this:

"You are not permitted: (a) to load the Game on to a network server for the purposes of distribution to one or more other device(s) on that network or to effect such distribution;"

If a friend and I want to play Elite at the same location and I goto that location (lets say it's his place) and he has a more up to date version, if I copied his version instead of downloading(possibly gigabytes worth of) the update, I would be in violation of the EULA since technically my friend's computer would be a "server"?.

Technically your friend's computer isn't a server. It's a client and therefore not affected by this part of the EULA.

However I would never exchange *.exe files between two clients via LAN unless your hobby is malware removal.

 

[Shadowdancer]

It's generally a disconcerting (and IMO rather stupid) trend that publishers rely on in-time downloads for everything. It would be trivial to provide cryptographically verifiable downloadable installation packages to facilitate deployment to people with bad connectivity. I find it extremely arrogant to assume that everyone can just download a gigabyte or (sometimes significantly, cf Ubi) more in an acceptable time or at acceptable cost, and even blindly implement boilerplate legal language that explicitly prohibits working around infrastructure problems without actually incurring any risk or cost to the publisher.

 

[TriumphANT]

No it means you cannot load your copy of elite onto a server and share it out to other devices. Or more simply put you cannot share it amongst friends by adding it to a network.

I wonder how this would apply on my work network, where every Port 80 request is forced through a proxy/webcache centrally. If installs/updates are done over Port 80/HTTP, then I cannot by definition play the game without breaching the EULA.

 

[Agony_Aunt]

In reality it doesnt matter if you do copy the files. At the end of the day everyone playing requires a unique id to play.

Technically speaking FD could upload a torrent themselves and it wouldnt matter, at least unless someone figures out not only how to bypass/fake the authentication, but also how to duplicate or ignore all the backend simulation (in which case it would be a severely crippled version of the game).

Im tempted to suspect that the no offline decision was at least influenced by piracy concerns, if not the main reason.

But worring about copying a the files locally, i think you could have avoided wasting FDs time with this question.

I don't think the system authority would come busting down your door if you did it... Well as long as its only shared over a lan, not uploaded to the web.

 

[Holm76]

Why even ask them if its ok to copy the updated files over?

Obviously you're not gonna go to jail for doing this and you already paid for an account. I say copy the hell out of it.

 

[zynaps]

Or you can just tell yourself "to hell with the EULA" and do it anyways?

 

[.Stu.]

its a lawyer speak catch all. Whilst its daft, i think its unlikely that FD would actually do anything about the scenarios you mentioned. How would they know for a start!!

Unless each downloaded game is fingerprinted from the account, which seems kinda pointless since you need a valid account to log in and play.

Step away from the issue, - really, I don't think its worth you worrying about.

Just my opinion.

So I wa perusing the EULA the other day when I noticed this:

"You are not permitted: (a) to load the Game on to a network server for the purposes of distribution to one or more other device(s) on that network or to effect such distribution;"

So I wrote support a ticket:


Their response:



I wrote back asking this line to be reviewed by whomever is in charge of the EULA.



Not looking for a riot or anything, but if you are displeased with this as I am, let them know by making a ticket and asking that line to be reviewed.

 

[Jediben]

EULA has about as much influence and weight behind it as the phrase "serving suggestion" on a box of cereal.

 

[CrazyH0rse]

You asked and they just gotta say no... otherwise they're undermining their own EULA and they just can't do that.

 

[SuBSynk]

Or you can just tell yourself "to hell with the EULA" and do it anyways?

And your account may be terminated.

- - - - - Additional Content Posted / Auto Merge - - - - -

EULA has about as much influence and weight behind it as the phrase "serving suggestion" on a box of cereal.

See above.

Subject to your compliance with the terms of this EULA, we grant you a non-transferable, non-exclusive, non-sublicensable, revocable, limited licence to use the Game.

 

[Blob]

If this is really a problem (quantify the potential number of users who would benefit), then is it worth developing a download proxy, perhaps served by the existing client updater/launcher? Clients would then download the manifest from ED servers, but download the corresponding files from the proxy on the LAN. Client-side checksumming should prevent trojans.