darkSpyro

I know that back in 2012, dark approved of hacks being posted here. But since Activision and the developers now browse these forums on a daily basis, should hacks still be posted on here?

Few users here got C&D'd for posting the hacks on the message boards recently, and I was wondering if hacks is still allowed even with Activision, TFB and VV now having accounts on the forums.

Well,probably on a 'post at your own risk' basis, just like in some other fandom news sites where fangames are posted but the risk of C&D is up to them to allow the news post or not. But it's another rule Dark won't clarify and delete topics about if we bother him about it.

Quote: da rulez

Don't post links to illegal/pornographic material.
It's just in no way approriate for a website based around a game such as Spyro the Dragon. Anyone who does so will be banned immediately. Asking for ROMs will get you a swift ban as well though discussion is allowed as long as you aren't boasting about the fact or you're providing a method for others to get them no matter how cryptic.

Not sure what's confusing or misunderstood about the rules that need to be clarified. As long as the material isn't illegal, then it's okay to post.

It's still illegal because you're tampering with the code,but it was allowed in the past and only once in a while someone got called out for it.

"tampering with the code". I'm not familiar with the law against that. Please, do tell how "tampering with the code" is illegal. I look forward to reading your reply once I get back from the courthouse myself on a whole different matter I'm dealing with. It will be fun, I'm sure.

PS: Not all "leaked" footage comes from "tampering with the code".

By purchasing any Skylander game, you agreed to the License Agreement to not hack nor tamper with the game code. By breaking that agreement, you can be prosecuted, especially if you post the hacks publicly. One user here recently hacked into Trap Team, posted images on here, he was tracked down and C&D'd.

A "Cease and Desist" is not a law.
A License Agreement is not a law.

A license agreement may also say things like you can't make a digital copy of a CD you purchased and load it to your MP3 player. Such a license would never hold up in court. One party saying "Don't do that" doesn't make it illegal. Show me a court document.

Oh, and... http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki...f_America,_Inc.

unclebob quite figting your petie fights with aura and she has got a point

and honestly everybody should know that if activison finds out about leacked content then they are of course going to drop the ban hammer

A.) There was no point to begin with. The whole thing that started this thread this time around turned out to not even be from "hacked" content - it was someone who had legitimately acquired the figures early.

B.) Who the hell is Activision going to "drop the ban hammer" on and what, exactly, is Activision going to ban them from?

C.) Good job digging up an old thread to try and start some more drama. Go to school, learn some grammar, then come back next year when you can type in coherent sentences. Seriously, your first post has fourteen words and there's at least ten errors in it.

i see why people hate you you are worse than i was to aura and that is saying something on topic with activison and tfb and vv having accounts on here people should be careful or your youtube account could get deleted

Quote: UncleBob

A "Cease and Desist" is not a law.
A License Agreement is not a law.

A license agreement may also say things like you can't make a digital copy of a CD you purchased and load it to your MP3 player. Such a license would never hold up in court. One party saying "Don't do that" doesn't make it illegal. Show me a court document.

Oh, and... http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki...f_America,_Inc.

A License is technically a contract. If you signed, you have to follow by those rules. If caught breaking them, the company has all rights to take it to court. A lot of games have such and have done such.

Oh and find a better source, Wikipedia is not a good one.

Quote: undefined

A License is technically a contract. If you signed, you have to follow by those rules. If caught breaking them, the company has all rights to take it to court. A lot of games have such and have done such.

I don't think you understand how contracts work.

First and foremost, as you do know, you don't "sign" a license agreement with software. Second, just because it's in a contract (or, in this case, a license), does not mean it is legal. There have been license agreements struck down in courts many times over clauses included in the licenses. Can you find a successful court case where an individual was criminally punished for "hacking" a video game, as we're discussing here?

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Oh and find a better source, Wikipedia is not a good one.

You know, I could have just told you to Google "Galoob vs. Nintendo", but I gave you a link with a pretty decent overview that's written in layman's terms, plenty of follow-up links, but here:

https://law.resource.org/pub/u...2.92-16364.html
The final verdict in the Galoob/Nintendo case. Where the court found that end users are allowed to modify original works for their own use. Nintendo was forced to pay out over $15 million dollars plus court costs in this case - and Nintendo is known for having a top-notch legal team that rarely loses... (Seriously, read up on the Universal vs. Nintendo lawsuit from years ago... it's a pretty amazing story.)

I have supplied facts, court documents (and overviews in layman's terms), and logic.

If you have something to add beyond "derp derp* license agreement", please, provide whatever evidence you can. I'd love to read up on a similar case where the court ruled in favor of the publisher.

*Apparently, "derp" isn't an insult, so I'm okay to call people that.

Derp is an insult the same way retard is an insult - VERY offensive and mean. The smarter idea is stop arguing already because it's Dark who has to answer this, not some random user.

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Derp is an insult the same way retard is an insult - VERY offensive and mean.

You know, I once thought the exact same thing, until a moderator here showed me the light.

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The smarter idea is stop arguing already because it's Dark who has to answer this, not some random user.

He already did answer it though - I quoted above his exact words. It shouldn't require him posting multiple times when the question has already been answered.

just quit picking fights with us please it is getting annoying

Quote: Rattlebuckler

just quit picking fights with us please it is getting annoying

Let me get this straight....
You came into a thread:
A.) That went ten days without anyone having had posted in it,
B.) That is something you haven't posted in before,
C.) Insulted and attacked me,
D.) Added nothing to the actual conversation being discussed,

...and *I* need to quit picking fights with *you*? Gotcha.

Kind of funny that the person who cherry picks arguments left and right and likes to derail topics down to hell accuses others of adding nothing to the conversation. If he was that big of a troll or flame baiter then you shouldn't have answered,Bob,but here you are.

Quote: undefined

If he was that big of a troll or flame baiter then you shouldn't have answered,Bob,but here you are.

Simple - because I generally like to take the time to reply when someone makes a post directed towards me.

So, the question for you is if you honestly feel the way you do, then why are you injecting yourself into this aspect of the thread? By your logic, you shouldn't have answered, but, here you are...

you love to pick fights you are the troll not me and your sending topics to hell just because aura or trix says something so you can piss them off so shut up

A Licence agreement works like a contract though. If you agreed to it, you also agreed to following the rules of that company in order to play the game. If you do something to the game that is considered illegal to the game makers, like Hacking the game and getting caught with it. You can get a suit, and they can use whatever evidence they have of you doing such and you will pay the price.

It's a simple concept, why are you making it a big complicated mess? You should know this.

Because it is not as simple as you make it out to be.

It seems pretty simple to me. *shrugs* I guess it's from point of perspective.

What is the difference between Contract Law and Property Law and which category does a License Agreement fall under?

Property law is more like territory, like if someone were to pirate a movie, and get caught selling them.

Contract law is more like what I kind of said previously. Except it has different forms of it, I believe. Except in some contacts there is some loop holes, which are normally the escape cause.

License Agreement is more towards a Contract Law. But can up to a Property law, if it's content of a movie being sold that is not by the company. Like pirating the game and such. So both.

Very close - by default, a License Agreement will generally fall under Property Law, rather than Contract Law - which is what makes all of this "complicated".

I'm sure you've heard the phrase "Possession is 9/10ths of the law." Obviously, that phrase is not accurate - but it does have a twinge of truth to it - Under Property Law, an individual who legally posses the property is generally (although not always) given more authority over said property. I buy the disc, that data on the disc becomes mine. I can resell that data on the disc (used games), I can burn the disk in a fire, or I can load the disk into a desktop and look at the code.

Now, you get into some different areas when dealing with online networks (For example, Activision has successfully won suits against folks for hacking games like Starcraft when it effects online gameplay) - the difference being that accessing the network is a contract, while playing a game is a property (even though both require the user to agree to a license).

This is where Nintendo v Galoob comes into play - the courts ruled on this years ago. An individual who owns a game is free to modify the code to his/her copy of the game. It's pretty clear cut.

Quote: Bifrost

Derp is an insult the same way retard is an insult - VERY offensive and mean. The smarter idea is stop arguing already because it's Dark who has to answer this, not some random user.

And still waiting for the response, mostly to just end all of this.

Quote: UncleBob

Very close - by default, a License Agreement will generally fall under Property Law, rather than Contract Law - which is what makes all of this "complicated".

I'm sure you've heard the phrase "Possession is 9/10ths of the law." Obviously, that phrase is not accurate - but it does have a twinge of truth to it - Under Property Law, an individual who legally posses the property is generally (although not always) given more authority over said property. I buy the disc, that data on the disc becomes mine. I can resell that data on the disc (used games), I can burn the disk in a fire, or I can load the disk into a desktop and look at the code.

Now, you get into some different areas when dealing with online networks (For example, Activision has successfully won suits against folks for hacking games like Starcraft when it effects online gameplay) - the difference being that accessing the network is a contract, while playing a game is a property (even though both require the user to agree to a license).

This is where Nintendo v Galoob comes into play - the courts ruled on this years ago. An individual who owns a game is free to modify the code to his/her copy of the game. It's pretty clear cut.

Although that is true, that you can do whatever you want with the disk. It's mainly a keep it to your self type of doing. As in no showing any of such content. Like showing people ROMs and Emulators, which have gotten people banned before.

And did you know that Nintendo knew about some hacking on their games (such as pokemon), that they decided to do hack checks on some content. Like in Pokemon there's certain event coding, if it doesn't match with their data bases, you can get booted off the pokemon transfer program because of such.

This is basically what Activision is trying to do with the hacked content that some users thought was okay. They want to delete it for simple reasons.
1. They don't like that at all.
2. They do not want any spoilers revealed until later.
Then there's optional 3. They got scared, because that means a person might hack more than just a game.

Honestly I cannot blame a game company to take down a person for hacking. It's just wrong altogether.

Quote: da rulez

Don't post links to illegal/pornographic material.
It's just in no way approriate for a website based around a game such as Spyro the Dragon. Anyone who does so will be banned immediately. Asking for ROMs will get you a swift ban as well though discussion is allowed as long as you aren't boasting about the fact or you're providing a method for others to get them no matter how cryptic.

Are these not dark's words?

If the Speed Limit is posted at 65MPH, do you need to call the highway patrol every few miles and verify the speed limit?

Last time I checked the speed limit doesn't change at the government's leisure depending on the street, regardless of the current sign, as long as it gives the road more attention. Or do I need to bring up every issue that Dark put on the rules but is allowing, like swearing, or how advertisement is totally fine depending on what you're selling?

Oh wait no, you're not Dark. You can't answer that without pulling an answer out of YOUR conclusions. So please don't speak for Dark when you're not him, Bob.

Quote: undefined

Although that is true, that you can do whatever you want with the disk. It's mainly a keep it to your self type of doing.

That's not true - if I resell the disc on eBay, then I'm not keeping it to myself, at all.

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As in no showing any of such content.

What? People have been recording footage of their game play since the NES days. Sure, recently, Nintendo tried to do some kind of copyright claim on Youtube - but something to remember, a copyright claim isn't the same as the law. We uploaded a video of my wife singing the national anthem a cappella and some company flagged it for copyright. Until there is a court decision regarding the distribution of original footage from video games, I'm simply on the side that making an original creation using Activision's Skylanders program is no different than making an original creation using Microsoft's Paint program - just because you used someone else's program, the creation is still a unique product created by you.

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Like showing people ROMs and Emulators, which have gotten people banned before.

Wait, are we talking about the legality of things? Because that's a whole world different than banning. With that said, Emulators (most generally) are not illegal at all. ROMs, on the other hand, are generally illegal - but distributing game code is a lot different than hacking/modifying game code.

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And did you know that Nintendo knew about some hacking on their games (such as pokemon), that they decided to do hack checks on some content. Like in Pokemon there's certain event coding, if it doesn't match with their data bases, you can get booted off the pokemon transfer program because of such.

And that's well within Nintendo's rights. Now, if Nintendo has been able to detect users hacking Pokemon... why haven't they sued them in court?

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This is basically what Activision is trying to do with the hacked content that some users thought was okay. They want to delete it for simple reasons.
1. They don't like that at all.

There are things I don't like on the internet. That doesn't mean I should be able to bully websites into taking the stuff down.

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2. They do not want any spoilers revealed until later.

Then they need to do a better job at programing or embrace DLC.

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Then there's optional 3. They got scared, because that means a person might hack more than just a game.

I don't even know what this means.

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Honestly I cannot blame a game company to take down a person for hacking. It's just wrong altogether.

It's a pretty narrow view to say "hacking is wrong" - it's a pretty dang broad activity. It depends what is being done. Hacking into a private server system and releasing a company's private information all over the internet? Yeah. Hacking into a game I legally purchased just to see what can be done with the software I own? Naw. I paid for it, after all.

Quote: undefined

So please don't speak for Dark when you're not him, Bob.

I'm not answering for dark - merely quoting his rules that answer the question posted in this thread. It's funny, I see folks quote the rules all the time ("Don't double post! Don't advertise!") - have you yelled at them for "speaking for dark"?

You're saying that the rule he put there is set in stone. Pretty sure you also argued over advertisement for Dark too,I just didn't bother to call you out in somewhere outside Site Help and annoy people from Toys and Merch.

Also, quoting phrase per phrase.You know an argument reached horrifying nitpick leves when someone does that for more than 3 sentences. I'm out and expecting the thread gone by tomorrow.

Didn't the SSA character change hack get someone in trouble a few years ago?

They got a C&D from Activision, but that was all.

Twisting what I meant, I see.

I meant if you have hacked content of the game your purchased, it should be kept to yourself.

You can always resell the game especially when it says not too (I mean I looked a the back of swap force and it did say not for resell.). I mean it's nothing that bad, they can't do anything about that. But a person hacking the game is really gonna piss them off.

Emulators run ROMs that's why both are technically illegal on the site. If that's not entirely true, than what else is an emulator for?

As for the whole Nintendo bit, I was originally using Nintendo as a example of what I meant. But the reason why they didn't do any lawsuits, is because
1. It sounds ridiculous to do that to little kids.
2. There's already a punishment. And that's not using the Pokemon bank anymore. Basically wasting the parent's time and money on it.
3. In the game pokemon sometimes those hacked pokemon turn into bad eggs. So that's actually another punishment anyways.
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1. Although that is true that you shouldn't bully websites for things you don't like. But if it was let's say your artwork and got edited. You can sue for that. Because it was and is your artwork, just stolen and edited. (The artwork bit is an example.)

2. Okay probably. Though they were not expecting people to do that.

3. You know how Sony got hacked because of a movie that was in the works? Well Other companies are afraid of Other people or threats hacking into their companies and losing files.
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//forum.darkspyro.net/spyro/vi...56&post=5334939

Quote: undefined

I meant if you have hacked content of the game your purchased, it should be kept to yourself.

Why? Let's look at this from a different angle - the glitch that allowed folks to access some of the magic/unknown zones and acquire the soul gems early - should that have been kept to one's self?

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But a person hacking the game is really gonna piss them off.

It should be obvious by now that there are folks out there who don't care who they "piss off". This shouldn't be a gauge with which to measure if something is legal or not.

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Emulators run ROMs that's why both are technically illegal on the site. If that's not entirely true, than what else is an emulator for?

While I won't pretend that the *vast* majority of individuals who use emulators do it to illegally run copyrighted ROMs, there *are* some legal uses for them. A.) Homebrew. Some folks like to program and make their own original games for older systems as a hobby. Sometimes, these games even get put onto actual cartridges. When the creators of these original titles release them for free on the internet, then it's perfectly legal to download their ROM and (generally) the corresponding emulator to play the game.
B.) Backups. Now, I'm not talking about someone who downloads "backups" off the internet - but if I take my own original copy of a game and create an actual backup of the the cartridge or disk (that I DO NOT DISTRIBUTE), then I am legally entitled to play it via (most) emulators. This is the same as popping in the new music CD and ripping it to your phone/MP3 player - you're creating a digital backup of the physical goods you already own.
C.) Original. Look at the Retron 5. That neat little system that plays your original Famicom, NES, Super Famicom, SNES, Game Boy, Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance and more cartridges. A real, live product that you can go into stores and purchase - and it does it all through emulation. Several of the Flashback systems also emulate the original hardware to allow folks to play "ROM" files of the original games (which is an example of when ROMs are legal).

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As for the whole Nintendo bit, I was originally using Nintendo as a example of what I meant. But the reason why they didn't do any lawsuits, is because
1. It sounds ridiculous to do that to little kids.

What about folks who aren't kids?
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2. There's already a punishment. And that's not using the Pokemon bank anymore. Basically wasting the parent's time and money on it.
3. In the game pokemon sometimes those hacked pokemon turn into bad eggs. So that's actually another punishment anyways.

You do realize our legal system isn't based on punishment, but on justice, right?

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1. Although that is true that you shouldn't bully websites for things you don't like. But if it was let's say your artwork and got edited. You can sue for that. Because it was and is your artwork, just stolen and edited. (The artwork bit is an example.)

Depends.

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2. Okay probably. Though they were not expecting people to do that.

Then they're complete morons if they weren't expecting it. Spyro's Adventure, the very first game in the series, was hacked shortly after it came out and the sidekicks were revealed waaaay before there was anything official announced about them. Why would this game have been any different?

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3. You know how Sony got hacked because of a movie that was in the works? Well Other companies are afraid of Other people or threats hacking into their companies and losing files.

I seriously doubt that the kinds of people who are "hacking" Skylanders are capable of or interested in doing something like what happened to Sony. Although, going after hobbyists sometimes leads to blowback where "hacktivists" will go after a particular company.

Quote: Arc of Archives

//forum.darkspyro.net/spyro/vi...56&post=5334939

Er... There's more to that that I am not at liberty to discuss, as it is not my place to do so.
But, I'd like to point out that this is a perfect example of how off-the-mark some folks on here are. Activision contacts Youtube to have stuff removed. Activision contacts imgur and photobucket to have stuff removed. Activision contacts this guy's employer to get him in trouble. Activision sends C&D letters to scare folks...

...all that, and yet no one has actually gone to court over this yet? Why is Activision actively avoiding the court system? Why are they doing this whole complicated run-around instead of just shutting folks down using the legal system? What does Activision know that leads them to avoid the courts?

Quote: UncleBob

Quote: da rulez

Don't post links to illegal/pornographic material.
It's just in no way approriate for a website based around a game such as Spyro the Dragon. Anyone who does so will be banned immediately. Asking for ROMs will get you a swift ban as well though discussion is allowed as long as you aren't boasting about the fact or you're providing a method for others to get them no matter how cryptic.

Are these not dark's words?

If the Speed Limit is posted at 65MPH, do you need to call the highway patrol every few miles and verify the speed limit?

While the rule covers most of the bases rather well, it also clearly hasn't been changed or updated in years (seen by no mention of Skylanders). It wouldn't hurt for him to come in and give some clarification and have all of this solved and over with.

And still waiting for the admin to respond.