Is cheating in games illegal a cheater ask me ? ... the short answer is YES !

[MAXE]

The cheating issue in the games appears to be criminal infringement.

I'm going to try to point to the places in the law that make this illegal, step by step.

17 U.S. Code § 106 - Exclusive rights in copyrighted works says:

Subject to sections 107 through 122, the owner of copyright under this title has the exclusive rights to do and to authorize any of the following:
(2) to prepare derivative works based upon the copyrighted work;

The definition of a derivative work is here:

A “derivative work” is a work based upon one or more preexisting works, such as a translation, musical arrangement, dramatization, fictionalization, motion picture version, sound recording, art reproduction, abridgment, condensation, or any other form in which a work may be recast, transformed, or adapted. A work consisting of editorial revisions, annotations, elaborations, or other modifications which, as a whole, represent an original work of authorship, is a “derivative work”.

This seems to apply to what you're doing when cheating - you're modifying the original work to create a new one.

According to 17 U.S. Code § 501:

Anyone who violates any of the exclusive rights of the copyright owner as provided by sections 106 through 122... is an infringer of the copyright

Since you don't have permission to create a derivative work (and don't seem to qualify for an exception like fair use), you're infringing the owner's exclusive right to do this.

You are therefore officially infringing.

Not all infringement is criminal - but it appears yours is.

17 U.S. Code § 506 - Criminal offenses says:

In general.
- Any person who willfully infringes a copyright shall be punished as provided under section 2319 of title 18, if the infringement was committed—
(A) for purposes of commercial advantage or private financial gain;

You say you're selling it, so almost certainly it's for private financial gain, and I can't describe your infringement as anything but willful.

So you appear to qualify for criminal charges, if the federal government felt like prosecuting you.

If you look at 18 U.S. Code § 2319, you can see the penalty is as follows:

Any person who commits an offense under section 506(a)(1)(A) of title 17—
(1) shall be imprisoned not more than 5 years, or fined in the amount set forth in this title, or both, if the offense consists of the reproduction or distribution, including by electronic means, during any 180-day period, of at least 10 copies..., of 1 or more copyrighted works, which have a total retail value of more than $2,500;
(2) shall be imprisoned not more than 10 years, or fined in the amount set forth in this title, or both, if the offense is a felony and is a second or subsequent offense under subsection (a); and
(3) shall be imprisoned not more than 1 year, or fined in the amount set forth in this title, or both, in any other case

So, on a first offense, it's up to 5 years in federal prison assuming you're doing at least 10 copies and $2500 worth of infringing software per 180 days, and up to 1 year in federal prison if you're doing less business than that.

All modern ToS will not allow you to reverse engineer the software or use any cheats created by a cheat developer.

If you breach those terms of service then you have broken a contract - that is what allows them to sue you.

They will no doubt argue that the prevalence of cheat routines developed by people like you reduce the number of people willing to play the game - say 100,000 users x $10/month * 12 months = $12,000,000. They will also ask the court to impose punitive damages to discourage this sort of thing.

Which brings us to the copyright violation. You are allowed to copy their software provided you comply with the ToS. But you didn't. Therefore you are in breach of the Copyright Act and subject to additional civil and criminal sanctions.

Finally, your "cheats" access their servers in a way that the ToS doesn't authorize. This puts you in breach of the CFFA - breaking this carries serious jail time penalties. Not to mention that in the US & EU, a criminal conviction will preclude you from many jobs, including, naturally, any with access to company computer systems.

Putting aside the illegalities, cheats are unethical and ruin the game experience for millions of people who don't use cheats.

You are a criminal if you cheat - stop being one !

And Valve, fix the anticheat and sue thous criminals !

Thanks in advance

Maxe

[Vamp]

Remove CS, cheating cut in half.

[MAXE]

Originally posted by Vamp:

Remove CS, cheating cut in half.

But I like the game .. for me the game is like real time speed chess !

I relax when I play CS & im good at the game ..

But yeah the easy way of dealing with the cheating issue in CS is to remove the game entirely !

Another option could be demand personal credential to be able to play in prime, then force prime to only be allowed to be bought by a credit card ?

The next could be that prime could only be played on Windows systems like CS used to be ?

It is the recurring cheaters that cause all the trouble in the game, for the rest of the playerbase and that is what is killing it, i have even seen players able to use an Ai to play for them while drinking beer and watch his pc play for him against other players !

it is unethical and ruin the game experience for the rest of us ..

[C²C^Guyver |NZB|]

A wall of text on something that you refuse to understand. You can't put people in jail for cheating in a video game lol.

There will always be cheaters, liars and thieves. It's part of human nature. You've been told this so many times that it's not even funny anymore.

Valve also does not read these forums. There are only other Steam users here.

That's why it's called the Steam Community Forums.

[C²C^Guyver |NZB|]

Also, funny thing that you forgot about your suggestion. If someone uses your account to cheat, the account owner goes to jail? Sound good? You are responsible for the security of your account and anything that happens on your account. So think about that when you're suggesting jail time.

[Silicon Vampire]

Please check post history of OP before engaging.

[C²C^Guyver |NZB|]

Originally posted by Silicon Vampire:

Please check post history of OP before engaging.

Oh I'm aware. The scary thing is he thinks he's right lol.

[MAXE]

Originally posted by C²C^Guyver |NZB|:

Originally posted by Silicon Vampire:

Please check post history of OP before engaging.

Oh I'm aware. The scary thing is he thinks he's right lol.

I am right ..

Valve could sue cheaters and cheat developers and put them in jail and give them fines in the million dollar class, If Gabe Newell want to do that .. and Valve can do that because of breach of ToS, breach of CFFA & breach of the copyright act, ..

So when someone abuse cheat in the game, then it is violation of the copyright & breach of ToS and CFFA do to derivative work of the original software !

You can get 10+ years in jail for it and never be allowed near a computer system again that got access to public internet, both in US and in EU ..

I just hope Valve wakes up and do somthing about it, before all the normal players run screaming away from this platform !

[C²C^Guyver |NZB|]

You're not right. Thinking that you're right is not the same thing as being right.

Like I said let's see how you like your suggestion if your account gets hijacked and you go to jail for someone else's wrongdoing lol

[C²C^Guyver |NZB|]

They also aren't going to do this because you've been told half a dozen times that you are not the first person to suggest this over the years. Does it look like they've implemented it? No.

EDIT
Also do you sit there in real life and keep going if someone tells you that you made a bad suggestion? I certainly hope not.

[MAXE]

Originally posted by C²C^Guyver |NZB|:

They also aren't going to do this because you've been told half a dozen times that you are not the first person to suggest this over the years. Does it look like they've implemented it? No.

EDIT
Also do you sit there in real life and keep going if someone tells you that you made us bad suggestion? I certainly hope not.

to get more control with the Steam accounts is never a bad suggestion !

It will help Valve in the long run to keep the bad guys away from this platform !
Or atleast not on the same servers as the normal players, it is a better way of doing it than the trustfactor system, because the trustfactor system punish great players aswell and that is bad for the reputation of the game and the anticheat solution !

It even hits innocent pro players if they got a high level of performance in the game, even when their not cheating in the game !

[C²C^Guyver |NZB|]

What you're not understanding is, they already have total control lol

All an account has to do is commit the right infraction and the account goes away forever, as in terminated or deleted.

Your suggestions are laughable and it almost sounds like that you are actually for cheating, because your suggestions would only make it worse, so have fun with that.

I'm out.

[MAXE]

Originally posted by C²C^Guyver |NZB|:

What you're not understanding is, they already have total control lol

All an account has to do is commit the right infraction and the account goes away forever, as in terminated or deleted.

Your suggestions are laughable and it almost sounds like that you are actually for cheating, because your suggestions would only make it worse, so have fun with that.

I'm out.

Ehh Right ..

It's like if you want to borrow a car, but you can't because the police have taken your driver's license, so the rental car will not lend it to you because you lack your license!

How can you rent a car in your name ? .. simple answer -> YOU CANT !

Same goes with registered Steam accounts, how can you cheat again if Valve ban you in person ? .. Simple answer -> YOU CANT !

[󠀡󠀡󠀡]

Originally posted by M-A-X-E ™:

The cheating issue in the games appears to be criminal...

not reading allat sorry bro

[Abigail From Sneaky Squid Dept.]

Although there has been game developers that have gone after cheat developers (jagex, Activision blizzard) this has only worked since the cheat makers folded because they didn't want to risk it in court. Who would actually win such a case is something I will leave to an actual lawyer.

The rest of your nonsense has already been debunked so many times it's not even funny.

[NemesisChaingunner]

I didnt need a wall of text to see the op is a troll.