Legal Opinion: How Cloud Gaming Turned Piracy Into Espionage

[News Portal]

Now that games like Diablo III are storing all their data in the cloud and streaming it to you, will cracking the game be actual piracy, or will it be espionage? Patrick Vuleta explains the difference, and why those guilty of espionage will be up for much more severe penalties.

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[Sponge]

It always comes back to pirates vs ninjas.

[Anon. E. Moose]

ctrl + f "red" "leliana" "kelly"
No phrases found.


But seriously, I always enjoy reading your articles.

[Gamer87]

Instead, future pirates will need to actively hack the data coming from the game server

What's to say that someone can't make a platform that gets updated every new game release/update that can host some **** on a local machine to emulate a bnet(or what ever) server?
Currently all you need to do is go and get a crack from a torrent or any other source. Something similar could be done with this as well i imagine. Someone with brains will figure it out im sure.

[Tas]

I have to say (an I know the forum nazi's will rage at me for it) but I support the hackers who "can" do this. Why should be be screwed over an pay through the nose for this moronic cloud ****.If this becomes widespread an all games do it, the price will explode over night an we all know it will. You wont be paying 80$ a game anymore, you'll be payin 100$ a month to play game. (Just a figure) but being that its blizzard, we all know they will charge you for anything an everything they possibly can.

[PalZer0]

If this sort of thing takes off widely, I can't see Aussies buying any more games as our Internet is still terribad compared with the rest of the world.

[TRB]

outside toilet in Tasmania that lacks an internet connection?

Such glaring inaccuracies ...

All Tasmanian outdoor toilets are hooked up to the NBN now.

[Marius]

ctrl + f "red" "leliana" "kelly"
No phrases found.


But seriously, I always enjoy reading your articles.

Couldn't fit them in.

Instead, future pirates will need to actively hack the data coming from the game server

What's to say that someone can't make a platform that gets updated every new game release/update that can host some **** on a local machine to emulate a bnet(or what ever) server?

No one's managed it so far. I also expect that to take a ridiculous amount of work, since instead of intercepting the packets from the server, they'd have to construct it from scratch, and guess how the client and server interacts. The moment they use any common tools like packet sniffing, decryption, etc, they're doing something illegal.

[TRB]

No one's managed it so far. I also expect that to take a ridiculous amount of work, since instead of intercepting the packets from the server, they'd have to construct it from scratch, and guess how the client and server interacts. The moment they use any common tools like packet sniffing, decryption, etc, they're doing something illegal.

They could potentially tailor the virtual machine to respond to what the client is expecting, without sniffing incoming packets.
It would be a lot of work, but then hacker groups love getting 'firsts' for 'mad respect'.

[nafem]

If this sort of thing takes off widely, I can't see Aussies buying any more games as our Internet is still terribad compared with the rest of the world.

well blizzard games, sc2/diablo3 dont have aussie servers, i get no lag playing on the USA ones, i think our internet we have is decent to be honest.

Plus we will all be on NBN soon, so be no excuse for poor internet.

its only the FPS style games that you need local servers these days but thats worldwide, every country needs their own for FPS games.

[Gamer87]

I have to say (an I know the forum nazi's will rage at me for it) but I support the hackers who "can" do this. Why should be be screwed over an pay through the nose for this moronic cloud ****.If this becomes widespread an all games do it, the price will explode over night an we all know it will. You wont be paying 80$ a game anymore, you'll be payin 100$ a month to play game. (Just a figure) but being that its blizzard, we all know they will charge you for anything an everything they possibly can.

I'm not sure if you understand the concept behind cloud gaming... Not all games will become a subscription per hour thing... Just because one news piece has it, it doesn't mean they all will.

[TRB]

Plus we will all be on NBN soon, so be no excuse for poor internet.

Unless people let Crazy tony "wingnut" abbott into power next election and he cancels the rest of it.

[Gamer87]

No one's managed it so far. I also expect that to take a ridiculous amount of work, since instead of intercepting the packets from the server, they'd have to construct it from scratch, and guess how the client and server interacts. The moment they use any common tools like packet sniffing, decryption, etc, they're doing something illegal.

Yeah it would take a bit of work, but it could be possible. Just need someone with the brains and willpower and it will happen.
And I doubt that they're scared about doing illegal things

[Shuth]

well blizzard games, sc2/diablo3 dont have aussie servers, i get no lag playing on the USA ones, i think our internet we have is decent to be honest.

Online-only requirements don't faze me one bit. It's the minority cases that are used to "prove" that we apparently all have terrible connections because their particular line drops out whenever it rains, or they live in the middle of nowhere 10kms from an exchange, etc. When stuff isn't working is when people are the most vocal - you don't see people proclaiming "My internet is working as intended!".

My favourite are the people complaining about latency while using satellite connections - what do you expect from an online game? Accept there are downsides to living in the sticks and realise that developers won't always meet the demands of the minority. Pick a different game or move.

[Tas]

I have to say (an I know the forum nazi's will rage at me for it) but I support the hackers who "can" do this. Why should be be screwed over an pay through the nose for this moronic cloud ****.If this becomes widespread an all games do it, the price will explode over night an we all know it will. You wont be paying 80$ a game anymore, you'll be payin 100$ a month to play game. (Just a figure) but being that its blizzard, we all know they will charge you for anything an everything they possibly can.

I'm not sure if you understand the concept behind cloud gaming... Not all games will become a subscription per hour thing... Just because one news piece has it, it doesn't mean they all will.

I think your giving game makers to much credit. They will "Jump" on anything they can charge for.Pay per hour is already used in china (dont know if it's done elsewhere)