== PIRACY AND COMPETITORS STOP NOW ==

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Yewen

Yewen

Yewen

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After seeing so many threads go down the toilet due to having to remove posts, close them or just plain delete them it is time for some action at the cause.

If you post a competitor in gaming then you will be on the end of up to a 7 day suspension if it warrants it.

If you post anything relating to piracy, getting the game before the UK release date or trash threads with not so subtle hints of any kind then you will be on the end of a 7 day suspension at the least.

In the rules on these forums this part is made very clear:-


OcUK are happy to provide the resources of these forums to responsible individuals without charge. They cost a substantial amount of money to maintain and use considerable amounts of bandwith which is paid for exclusively by OcUK. As you know OcUK are in the computer hardware business and therefore the promotion of OcUK's competitors is forbidden. Examples of promotion are :-
Posting links to competitors websites
Posting links to reviews that promote competitors
Quoting the names or contact details of competitors
Offering to provide the names or contact details of competitors
Hinting about product availability at competitors and their pricing
Using the forums to notify a member of intent or actual supply of names or contact details of competitors
Listing competitors names, URL's or e-mail addresses in signatures
Listing competitors names, URL's or e-mail addresses in profile
Posting links to or the mentioning of auction sites
Disguising attempts to do any of the above


No links or requests for "warez"
Providing or asking for information regarding "warez", "gamez" or any other software protected by copyright is forbidden. This includes discussion of 'chipped' or modified games consoles.

Mentioning competitors in gaming is no different to hardware, piracy talk in this section is the worst it has ever been, it is stupid and not big of you. If you have the game early, go play it and feel big about yourself for getting it a few days early. Let the people who buy the game decide when to talk about it.

This stops now, no excuses.

If you break the rules you could end up on a nice little holiday from the forums.

This is not a debate, this is not an excuse to post digs at the mod team, this is not an excuse to ask if your local greengrocers is a competitor.

Any questions that break rules in their own right keep them off the board and email me.
 
Yewen please don't hurt me :(

I just wondered if the sites I mention often (game, gamestation, and ign.com) are ok... if not feel free to edit my post. I just wanted to check.

ABout time something was done as well... and agreed it NEEDS to be a sticky...

*EDIT*

Following on from this, perhaps a small sample of sites could be listed that are ok to link too? (I mean other shops and review sites) I don't mean all of them by any means, but that will stop a lot of the confusion.

Could some RTM my post, in case it's breaking the rules please, so it can be editted.
 
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oweneades said:
Could this go as a sticky perhaps?!

( I can see it moving quite quickly off the front page with all the upcoming releases)
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I think lots of us are going to be going 'sticky' when we see the GoW graphics :eek: :D
 
i've always stuck to the rules here, and tried to point them out whenever appropriate:)

can you answer one question for me though; why is there such a hardline ban on modified consoles here? on the piracy and warez front thats totally understandable, but there are other uses for them. If it's through fear of reprisal s and/or lawsuits i cant understand why - forums such as avforums are allowed to talk freely about it and have never had any problems. I cant say im worried either way - rules is the rules afterall and i'll follow them, it just seems a strange decision to enforce a blanket ban on the subject:)

also not allowing discussion on imported games is absolute lunacy, even if it is only before the uk release.
 
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james.miller said:
i've always stuck to the rules here, and tried to point them out whenever appropriate:)

can you answer one question for me though; why is there such a hardline ban on modified consoles here? on the piracy and warez front thats totally understandable, but there are other uses for them. If it's through fear of reprisal s and/or lawsuits i cant understand why - forums such as avforums are allowed to talk freely about it and have never had any problems. I cant say im worried either way - rules is the rules afterall and i'll follow them, it just seems a strange decision to enforce a blanket ban on the subject:)
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I am very much the same, and never have mentioned a competitor (to my knowledge) and the same with piracy. (which I personally don't do, as you can tell from my xbox live tag, and the fact I am being reduced to a shaking wreck waiting for the new smackdown and Gears Of War)
 
Who reads stickies?

Last sticky I made has had 2400 hits in 2 months. The thread like this I made in gaming had 2400 hits in 12 hours.

game, gamestation, and ign.com are all ok.

If the company sells a lot of PC hardware then they are not ok.

You can mention and link to Tesco's selling a cabbage, but you can not link or mention them selling PC hardware. They are not well known for their hardware so it is ok to mention them for cabbages.

I only said about piracy, if importing the game means you need to modify your console to play it then no, you can not talk about importing *that* game.

Never said no ban on importing, just piracy.

The modification is usually to closely linked to piracy, and if the companies that make the consoles take action against the people that make the modifications then it is not worth risking at all on a private forum.

House rules basically, its something OcUK could be done for, so its not allowed. :)
 
That's cool, some consoles don't need to be modded to play import games like gamecube and DS and soon PS3 so I guess we can talk about those.
 
My wording is wrong then, I will edit accordingly.

For the clearup, if it requires modification of your console to play it, do not talk about it.

If its compatable over here, and its just a staggered release then that is fine.

You can talk about it if its legal. :)

The PS3 *as far as I know* is legal to import games for personal use, although I have not read anything from Sony for the PS3 on this yet.

If its legal or does not have its main use in illegal activity then it is ok to post.
 
Yewen said:
My wording is wrong then, I will edit accordingly.

For the clearup, if it requires modification of your console to play it, do not talk about it.

If its compatable over hear, and its just a staggered release then that is fine.

You can talk about it if its legal. :)

The PS3 *as far as I know* is legal to import games for personal use, although I have not read anything from Sony for the PS3 on this yet.

If its legal or does not have its main use in illegal activity then it is ok to post.
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To clear it up a little further *not that it really needs it*

Basically, saying woohooo I just got joe blogg's kills aliens 2009 from play-asia is cool.... ESPECIALLY for the 360, which some games are region free on.

Thanks for the clear up mate.
 
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If its later on decided by Microsoft to region lock all games and joe blogg's kills aliens 2009 becomes region locked then it would not be ok to talk about it.

If its the same as buying it from your local Game then its fine, you just choose to buy it from further away. :)
 
james.miller said:
i've always stuck to the rules here, and tried to point them out whenever appropriate:)

can you answer one question for me though; why is there such a hardline ban on modified consoles here? on the piracy and warez front thats totally understandable, but there are other uses for them. If it's through fear of reprisal s and/or lawsuits i cant understand why - forums such as avforums are allowed to talk freely about it and have never had any problems. I cant say im worried either way - rules is the rules afterall and i'll follow them, it just seems a strange decision to enforce a blanket ban on the subject:)
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Modifying consoles is a legal grey area because of what it entails. There are some, and I mean very few, legal modifications that you can do to a console. However, given that most mods allow you to bypass the copy protection, which is itself illegal (you cannot legally bypass copy protection if it's built in), modifying the console in that way becomes very dodgy ground. As OcUK, and more specifically Spie, is responsible for what is posted on these forums, if a case is ever brought against OcUK, it's not us as posters that will be in trouble, it would be Spie, so a decision was made to save all the hassle and ban talk of modifications outright. The same also applies to emulators and roms (some may be legal, some aren't, so save any problems and ban talk of all of them).
 
Just 2 quick questions, not that i bother cos i dont mod my console.

1. can we not talk about imports it even if you do not need to hard mod your console? as you can play import games on some consoles with just a disk? As the region disk for the gamecube seems to be allowed (Cant remember its name off hand) but if i thought about mentioning one for the PS2 i do fear i would be crossing the line?

2. It is illegal to mod your machine, but it isn't necessarily illegal to talk about it is it? or is it just such a grey area a blanket ban is probably the best form of policing?

edit i guess davey just answered my 2nd question lol so only 1 question left :D
 
Yewen said:
If its later on decided by Microsoft to region lock all games and joe blogg's kills aliens 2009 becomes region locked then it would not be ok to talk about it.
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Unless of course someone has a US Xbox360 and they import a US copy of the game, then there should be no problem (though I'd want proof they had a legal copy and not a warez version).
 
JUMPURS said:
2. It is illegal to mod your machine, but it isn't necessarily illegal to talk about it is it? or is it just such a grey area a blanket ban is probably the best form of policing?
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That's always been the case on here, don't talk about it full stop as its a grey area, neither seeming legal or illegal.
 
JUMPURS said:
Just 2 quick questions, not that i bother cos i dont mod my console.

1. can we not talk about imports it even if you do not need to hard mod your console? as you can play import games on some consoles with just a disk? As the region disk for the gamecube seems to be allowed (Cant remember its name off hand) but if i thought about mentioning one for the PS2 i do fear i would be crossing the line?
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My take is that if you can play it without doing an illegal modification to your console (ie, you use the Freeloader CD for the Cube), then you should be fine to talk about it here. Yewen of course has the final say.
 
TBH you want to make things easier??, just stop all talk about upcoming games period...in fact why dont you just close this part of the forum...Theres always the danger that someone will mention they got hold of a game well before the uk release date. So this thread serves absolutely no purpose tbh.

As for wanting proof to see if its a legit copy or a pirated copy...sorry i just lol'd at that...kinda stupid and silly if you ask me. As its all too easy to photoshop images/pics these days..especially if your a dab hand at it;):p.
 
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