A Question From an Old gamer

FanieT

Rear Admiral
I first saw Wing Commander I in a advert in a PC magazine in 1991 and was hooked. It took me almost two years to get enough to buy a PC that could run the game. I bought the game and a flight stick on the same day that I bought my first computer. Can't remember what the name of the stick was, probably some cheap Taiwanese junk because I got so wrapped up in the action that I broke the stick on the third day of playing. After gluing it back together and making sure I did not over stress the stick I enjoyed hours of flight in Wing Commander I and II.

I was a poor pilot then (Hell ! has it been that long ago- almost 20 years) and completing a mission was a great achievement. I dare say that I have improved since then.

Wing Commander was the very first game that I bought and since then have spent money on over 500 different ones. A few of these games have stood the test of time but Wing Commander I will always be the one that started it all.

I later bought Wing commander III , IV and after that Prophecy. The original WC 5.25 disks later became unusable and so I lost contact with the first Wing Commander games (pre-CD). The whole collection was gathering dust untill late 2009 when I came across a WC: Kilrathi Saga at a store and immediately bought it.

This prompted me to start replaying the whole series from the very start. And at least it was slightly easier this time around.

However when I came to WCIV to my horror I found that disk one had a scratch right through the surface rendering the cd useless. I could not run the game as there were read errors. I tried a lot of cd recovery software and managed to make a copy of the CD.

All this brings me to the question?

In my country making a copy of the CD is prohibited. Thus technically I am guilty of Piracy. Seeing that I am a Police Officer investigating such kinds of crimes does that make me corrupt?

Oops there goes the can of worms.....
 
I wouldn't think so, since your only trying to save a damaged game. I believe that your fine, as long as you dont sell the copy disc.
 
This should not open the debate about software piracy.

The point is that the laws governing the copying of software is tied in with the EULA and laws of specific countries and these laws tend to be misdirected pieces scraped together that does not target the right places.

The question is more how far would you go to restore something you love than it is of whether you would be prosecuted. I had to use the tools of the trade that pirates generally use. "Dip your hands into the sewer and you won't have clean hands"

That scratched CD is still bugging me I think I will start searching for a copy of WC4 to replace that CD.
 
Best piece of advice I can give is, if you want to save it, copy it. Don't loan it out, don't sell it, don't provide others copies. You bought the game, you own the license for THAT copy of the game. So do what you need to do and don't be stupid about it. As long as you keep it to yourself, no one, particularly the gov't is going to care.
 
In my country making a copy of the CD is prohibited. Thus technically I am guilty of Piracy. Seeing that I am a Police Officer investigating such kinds of crimes does that make me corrupt?
You are doing your best to submit to the laws of your government, which is good and right. I understand the spiral into corruption is slippery and it begins with decisions over what people believe to be trivial affairs. Though my opinion certainly has no weight in whether the authorities in SA judge you be doing right or wrong, I think the very fact that this dilemma is weighing on your conscience demonstrates that you have at least thought hard about this before carrying out this action.

Ultimately, you will have to exercise some wisdom in deciding whether or not this is really worth worrying about. If this really weighs on you that much, you can always try to find obtain another legitimate copy.
 
In my country making a copy of the CD is prohibited. Thus technically I am guilty of Piracy. Seeing that I am a Police Officer investigating such kinds of crimes does that make me corrupt?

It sounds as though you want us to reassure you that what you did was ok. I personally can't do that. You are responsible for the enforcement of the law which you violated. Does that make you a bad person or corrupt? Not necessarily, it would depend on your definition of "corrupt." Was it ok for you to do it? You already know the answer to that: no, it wasn't. You knowingly broke the law you have sworn to uphold (presuming police officers in your country take such an oath).

Only you can reconcile your actions with your own personal ethics. That's not something anyone else can do for you.
 
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