Are free steam keys legal?

[?????]

I've seen websites where you can get them for free but are they legal?

[invision2212]

im sure all you will get is a nice virus

[Judgmental Amaterasu]

If by legal you mean scams trying to steal your account information; Yes.

[Aachen]

“Websites” is far too broad and vague.

Somebody could create a blog to hand out free legitimately-obtained keys. That would not be illegal, generally.

Sourcing keys from third-parties is at-one’s-own-risk — due diligence is good work.

[?????]

no as in it is a game that is like paid but you can get the key for free

[Aachen]

Originally posted by ?????:

no as in it is a game that is like paid but you can get the key for free

Are you trying to be oblique?

[?????]

I dunno

[Aachen]

I’m going to hazard it’s a “no such thing as a free lunch” situation.

[?????]

Yeah now that i think about it it probably is piracy but i also have another question: how did you guys find this post so fast i posted it 12 minutes ago

[?????]

cool

[ReBoot]

Pro tip: if you want Internet cents, sign up for Amazon's Mechanical Turk. The scraps you get there can be turned into Steam games, among other things.

[busy]

that would be some kind of piracy. i hate piracy.

[Kargor]

There used to be times where various groups almost competed about making giveaways for trash games, but that has stopped ages ago. There's the occasional key giveaway, but they are rare.

Still, there are only three possible outcomes: you free key doesn't work at all, it gives you something other than promised, or it works as advertised. So, no problem.

Also, if keys are stolen or obtained via credit card fraud, they might get revoked eventually -- so even if they work, don't be surprised if they are removed later.

[NuLife]

Originally posted by ?????:

I've seen websites where you can get them for free but are they legal?

Just don't sign into those websites with your steam account

[Marazipan]

Indiegala are giving free Steam keys with game purchases, those are all legit and legal keys.

[Kargor]

Originally posted by Marazipan:

Indiegala are giving free Steam keys with game purchases, those are all legit and legal keys.

I have no in-depth knowledge of the English language or its contemporary usage patterns, but getting a free key through a purchase sounds weird to me...