quote YouLose
Terms and condition? If we had to abide by every rule, we'd go nuts. Sony user agreement also has lines about "All information provided must be truthful" and "You must live in the region you are signing up for." Do you think that stop anyone from lying and making uk/jp account when they're in the usa? Who the heck follows every single rule anyways, we all bended it at some point in our life. Yes, even you.
I do not make it a routine practice to break or ignore rules and try in every instance to stick to the rules that I am aware of. With respect to the rules you refer to, I have no JP or UK account. If I had a UK one, for example, it would be legitimate since I am not a US citizen, and hold a UK passport. For an account in Japan - if I ever do create one, I would more than likely find a proxy (a person not a system for spoofing) in Japan, that would allow me to use their postal address when registering, but any financial information on the account would be 100% correct. If you look at the policy regarding the creation of accounts, it is targeted at people that provide fake information for the purpose of misleading Sony and committing fraudulent transactions, and not gamers that want to see what Home in Japan has to offer.
The tone of your reply above suggests that you think that people should simple ignore the rules that they find to be inconvenient. So, next time you are doing 100mph and get a ticket, why not try telling the officer that, or the judge the next day in court.
quote biggabertha
That's true, it is on the geonet terms and conditions. I've never read the terms and conditions that Geonet enforces on you before and I probably never will.
My intention was never to make cheating a normal activity, like I've said, I just want to broaden people's views on it. Yes, cheating is wrong and yes, some of it breaks laws because it's unfair to others.
Did you know that lending your copy of a CD you've bought to a friend is illegal?
Did you also know public broadcast of music is illegal? And did you know playing games openly, in public, without permission such as in a shop, a birthday party or social gathering is breaking the law? You can actually get fined £500 for it here which isn't as much as littering in public.
If we do go by the tainted water example, then everyone is tainted - because I doubt that the good people here on the Neoseeker forums are so selfish that they wouldn't lend out something that belonged to them to a friend who wants to borrow it.
(Some of you may be too young to remember that in the past, you would have to copy a cassette in order to listen to it otherwise your main copy would deteriorate with every listen. That was breaking the law as well.)
Actually I'm not too young, and I know quite a lot about copyright. Making a copy for personal use is not breaking copyright, nor is lending your tape/album/CD/DVD or BluRay. You could even gift your friend a copy, so long as you can make the copy without breaking the DMCA in the US or similar laws elsewhere that make it problematic to circumvent copy protection mechanisms on copyright works (Incidentally, this is one of the potential problems when hacking a save file if that save is protected in any manner, you disk breaking the laws regarding circumventing copy protection mechanisms).
Copying a tape/CD/whatever and selling that copy for any amount of personal gain is illegal and infringes on the copyright. Distributing multiple copies of a copyright work for free would also qualify as illegal, because it meets the definition of a public performance or presentation. I'm very well aware how copyright works. Anything that qualifies as a public performance of a copyrighted work infringed copyright unless you have the permission of the copyright holder, in most countries. The standards can differ from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, but the principle laws are very similar.
In most regards it is very difficult in the world today to conduct yourself in an entirely blameless manner and remain untainted. That's a given. However, it would be fair to say that the degree to which we are tainted is under our own personal control and very much dependent on our character. Regardless of that, for any given moral decision, the illustration of the glass of pure clean water that may, or may not be tainted depending on the decision made is entirely apt.
Our lives are a stream or moral decisions. Do I speed, or stick to the limit (I set my cruise at the speed limit) Was that a Slight Tap On Pedal or did I actually stop? The light is amber, do I floor it, or hit the brakes? Did I indicate that I was going to turn right all of a sudden? Do I hold the door open or let it swing right into someone's face? Do I flirt with the waitress, or simply order my food? Do I wink at the receptionist or just collect my key? Do I cheat on that exam, or take my chances and study? I know that there is a way to glitch this game so I cannot be shot but can shoot others, should I use it? I could jailbreak my PS3 and spoof the current firmware to get on PSN, should I do that? The bank vault is open and no one is looking, what do I do? There's a sign that says no pictures please, but there are no cameras or guards, should I take a picture or not? We make dozens, if not hundreds of small moral choices each day. Those decisions reflect our true personality and morality, each small decision accumulates into the larger picture of who a person is and how moral they are.
You know, one of the best teachers I ever had taught me something far more important than the English class she taught. She taught me the importance of self control. That is, the ability to control my actions without external enforcement being required. So, for example, people have said that because Sony/L5/D3 don't do anything active to prevent the modding, that means it's not really breaking a rule or cheating otherwise they'd try to stop it. That's really very wrong because they do several things to stop it. The save file is tagged to your PSN account and is no stored in plain text. You require to go through several hoops to edit the file and make it usable on your system. Not only do those hurdles exist, but there are the posted rules of Geonet and PSN, as well as the various copyright notices that are displayed. These rules and copyright notices are like no trespassing signs, the hurdles youi have to leap to get a hacked file to work are like the fence you have to scale.
In other words, Sony/L5/D3 have taken measures to prevent modding, but those measures have been ignored and circumvented. But, for those exercising self control in their actions and decision making, the message is clear that modding your save file is not allowed. Just because there is not someone actively ban-hammering mod file users does not mean that we should all ignore our self control and our knowledge of what is, and is not allowed under the rules.
This topic is called "the eternal debate", and I think that the wider issue under discussion is simple morality. It all comes down to whether a person makes the correct moral choice or not. The debate here centers around the use of modded game saves, but the core issue of morality and choice are the same.
