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This question was asked and closed:

The Binding Of Isaac: move stats from pirated version to legal, steam-bought version?

How is it suddenly not a good idea to help a person move their progress from a pirated to a legal copy of the game? If anything, it discourages people from buying legal versions in favor of keeping their progress.

I know there is a point about support with pirated versions being off-topic in the FAQ, and I understand that not helping with problems related strictly to a pirated version is a kind of a penalty for that, but in cases like this, I do not support that policy.

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    I think the main point is that our stance is not to support piracy in any form. Providing support in this instance is sort of tacitly allowing it, if you buy it afterwards.
    – Frank
    May 7, 2013 at 3:15
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    Me and my friends had a discussion about people trying to get better a few weeks back, and somebody said this joke: "A to-be-former drug addict asks a psychiatrist: 'Doc, how am I gonna keep enjoying life when I stop taking drugs?' and the psychiatrist replies 'Oh no, you don't get to, once you've been tainted by evil!'" This situation reminded me of that. May 7, 2013 at 3:53
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    The question is now deleted and is now only viewable by 10k+ rep users. May 7, 2013 at 13:34
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    Hopefully they didn't pirate Game Dev Tycoon May 13, 2013 at 0:40

3 Answers 3

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As Frank states, we don't want to support piracy here on Arqade. Yes, people will always pirate stuff, and yes, those pirates can see the error in their ways and buy a game they've previously pirated, but that doesn't negate the fact that they originally pirated the game.

This runs deeper than just pirates having a change of heart though. There's also issues surrounding legality that I wont pretend to know everything about, but suffice it to say if the Arqade or the Stack Exchange network were to openly support cracks, key-gens, DRM workarounds, pirated games or anything else of questionable legality, then that opens up a doorway for litigation to be brought against the company as a whole, and possibly individual users of the site.

Quoting agent86 on our stance toward not-quite-legal games (emphasis mine):

When it comes to legality, we tend to err on the side of assuming good faith here, and only prohibit questions that are clearly on the wrong side of the law, the terms of service, or the EULA for the software in question. <snip>

This means that outright discussions of piracy, EULA/TOS violations (game hacks, etc) are off topic, but most of the rest of the legal questions surrounding gaming we leave alone. For instance, emulation and issues with emulators are considered fine and on-topic.

What I take away from this, is that by aiding a pirate (even if they bought the game eventually) is off-topic, as it is an outright discussion in support of piracy.


If anything, it discourages people from buying legal versions in favor of keeping their progress.

I disagree. By answering your question and having it available for future readers, we are then providing a resource that pirates can use to justify pirating the game, with a thought process similar to "Oh well, I can always buy it if its any good, as my progress will carry over to the bought game".

You're right that we should be encouraging people to buy the game, but realistically the game should sell itself through descriptions of gameplay, mechanics, or storyline, not the ease at which one can pirate it and then buy it, as is your case.

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    That's called holding a grudge and stupid
    – user28015
    May 7, 2013 at 20:35
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    @user28015 - No, it's called covering our ass and making sure we can't be sued, even if that includes a blanket ban on "grey-areas" such as this. I put grey-areas in quotes because not everyone agrees where that line should be drawn (yourself here as an example).
    – Robotnik Mod
    May 8, 2013 at 0:13
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    I am not a lawyer and I don't know if it is or isn't legal to help gamers who purchased a legal copy of a game after using a pirated version, so I have to agree with this answer right now, but ideally, I'd like to know if this can be a risk to all who assist such a person. May 8, 2013 at 0:17
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    @user1306322 It would be lovely if we lived in a world where it was that easy to find out, but we don't. The way you find out if it's a risk is by being hauled into court and incurring thousands in court costs and lawyers fees. Nobody wants to find out where the line is exactly when that's the price for finding out. May 9, 2013 at 3:52
  • @SevenSidedDie except for when you're out of law's range. Then it's just a matter of curiosity :P May 9, 2013 at 4:01
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    @user1306322 And in that case, it is impossible to satisfy one's curiosity because that's still the only way to find out. May 9, 2013 at 4:05
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The user only bought the game after asking out of peer pressure. It was originally asked in the terms of "is this worth buying or do I lose my save files?"

Now this sounds at least in the letter like a piracy support question. The implicit assumption is that it's not worth it to buy it if progress can't be shared, or that it's okay to pirate it now and buy it later if progress can be migrated.

I have made the call and this question is piracy support in letter and spirit. I deleted it several hours ago then forgot to actually click Post Your Answer here.

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It looks like the question's been deleted now.

To flesh out my earlier comment, the basic stance seems to be that we don't support piracy. No exceptions. We will generally assume good faith if we're not told straight out that it's been pirated, but we will not help at all if you tell us that.

There can be arguments made for allowing specific scenarios, such as this one, but you'll need to be very convincing if you want to change our current stance.

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