Should I allow someone to do this?

[RedDuke50]

I know someone who discovered how to get money easily in a video game by looking at a video on YouTube that may be considered copyright infringement which I found out is a sin. Should I allow the person to do the money making thing in the game or not allow it? If I allow it, would it be a sin?
Thank you

 

[adrift]

I know someone who discovered how to get money easily in a video game by looking at a video on YouTube that may be considered copyright infringement which I found out is a sin. Should I allow the person to do the money making thing in the game or not allow it? If I allow it, would it be a sin?
Thank you

I am not certain what you are saying? I am not understanding how you are allowing it?

 

[RedDuke50]

The person asks me if he can do the money thing and I tell him I don’t want him to.

 

[PatriceA]

I am not certain what you are saying? I am not understanding how you are allowing it?

I’m confused as well.

 

[Allegra]

If I understand correctly, you know someone who has discovered a “cheat” for a video game by watching a video on youtube. In my opinion, your friend has not committed a sin by watching the video on youtube. The person who posted it may have sinned or may not have. (It depends on several variables.) It is my opinion that the responsibility for ensuring that copyrights are not infringed upon rests on the youtube website and the individual who posts the video. There a a large number of youtube videos that are up there legally.

 

[RedDuke50]

Let me try to explain it better.
We both play a video game together where we are like little people in a town. You make money and pretend like weare living our own little life. The person I am playing with found a trick on YouTube on how to get money very easily. The video, if I am correct, might be considered copyright infringement which I learned is a sin. So he asked me if I would let him change the date of the game to get the money and I tell him “no” because I worry about letting him do it because it may be a sin on my part to let him use the method he learned from the video. But I am scrupulous so I wanted to ask you guys.
I sincerely apologize for making such a confusing post. I have made some of those recently.

 

[PatriceA]

I don’t think its a sin, its a fake game with fake money. Your friend isn’t actually making any money by watching the video. If he was, that would be copy right infringement.

 

[runningdude]

Let me try to explain it better.
We both play a video game together where we are like little people in a town. You make money and pretend like weare living our own little life. The person I am playing with found a trick on YouTube on how to get money very easily. The video, if I am correct, might be considered copyright infringement which I learned is a sin. So he asked me if I would let him change the date of the game to get the money and I tell him “no” because I worry about letting him do it because it may be a sin on my part to let him use the method he learned from the video. But I am scrupulous so I wanted to ask you guys.
I sincerely apologize for making such a confusing post. I have made some of those recently.

Using clips from the video game to instruct others probably falls under “fair-use”, and thus wouldn’t be copyright infringement.

Even if the video didn’t fall under fair use, the information presented in the video is not copyrightable. Using the skills learned in the video is not copyright infringement on you or your friends part.

 

[RedDuke50]

Thank you for your answers.

 

[MidnightSun12]

First off, I have no idea how the virtual economies in these online games work and whether “cheating” to multiply your own money in the game is somehow affecting other players who are paying subscriptions, etc… Personally, when other human players are involved, I think it’s a good idea to stick with honesty and avoid “cheating” even in the context of a video game.

As for your question, If you know beyond a resonable doubt that your friend has broken copyright law to obtain this information, then I believe it is worthy for you to mention to him the wrongness of breaking that copyright law. Although, it would be worthwhile to look into the copyright law associated with Youtube and see whether the legal liability falls on the person viewing the video or the person uploading the video when something like that is put on their site.

 

[Elizium23]

It is a violation of the Terms of Service provided by the game company, which everyone agrees to before playing the game.

It is ethically wrong for you to knowingly permit someone to do this. The game should have a mechanism for reporting other players in violation of the Terms of Service, and you should use it when you feel they are doing something like this.

There are also ways for the game developers to detect players who attempt to use cheats. It may not even be necessary for an independent report for your friend to get himself banned from playing.

As a side note, I will point out that many methods that purport to give you “free money” in games are actually scams designed to capture your login credentials and hijack your game account, or install a trojan on your computer, or worse.

 

[runningdude]

It is a violation of the Terms of Service provided by the game company, which everyone agrees to before playing the game.

It is ethically wrong for you to knowingly permit someone to do this. The game should have a mechanism for reporting other players in violation of the Terms of Service, and you should use it when you feel they are doing something like this.

There are also ways for the game developers to detect players who attempt to use cheats. It may not even be necessary for an independent report for your friend to get himself banned from playing.

As a side note, I will point out that many methods that purport to give you “free money” in games are actually scams designed to capture your login credentials and hijack your game account, or install a trojan on your computer, or worse.

Many games provide legitimate “cheat codes”, but this wasn’t quite the OP’s issue. He wanted to know if it was a violation of copyright law to use the cheat codes learned from a video online.

It very clearly isn’t, though your warning about scams and terms of use violations as separate issues are valid.

 

[RedDuke50]

Thank you for your answers everyone. I think what made me think it was copyright infringement was how the person recorded himself playing the game while he was using the cheats.

 

[Jacob18]

I know someone who discovered how to get money easily in a video game by looking at a video on YouTube that may be considered copyright infringement which I found out is a sin. Should I allow the person to do the money making thing in the game or not allow it? If I allow it, would it be a sin?
Thank you

The ways to participate in another’s sin:

(catholicdoors.com/faq/qu102.htm)

I am pretty sure, that you would not be sinning in not forcing someone else not to sin. We all have free will, and what another does is on them, in many a case.

 

[Jacob18]

I know someone who discovered how to get money easily in a video game by looking at a video on YouTube that may be considered copyright infringement which I found out is a sin. Should I allow the person to do the money making thing in the game or not allow it? If I allow it, would it be a sin?
Thank you

Many games provide legitimate “cheat codes”, but this wasn’t quite the OP’s issue. He wanted to know if it was a violation of copyright law to use the cheat codes learned from a video online.

It very clearly isn’t, though your warning about scams and terms of use violations as separate issues are valid.

Indeed, it is no sin to use cheat codes that are built into a game by the developers. Copyright infringment to post it on YouTube, though? It seems it is fairly easy to do such, but wether or not posting music videos or videos of games on YouTube is copyright infringment I question myself - where are the CAF legal experts when you need them?

 

[runningdude]

Indeed, it is no sin to use cheat codes that are built into a game by the developers. Copyright infringment to post it on YouTube, though? It seems it is fairly easy to do such, but wether or not posting music videos or videos of games on YouTube is copyright infringment I question myself - where are the CAF legal experts when you need them?

Like I said, copyright law has “fair use” exceptions. If the author of the video is simply illustrating how to play or how to use legitimate codes, then it is probably an acceptable use of copyrighted material.

 

[runningdude]

Indeed, it is no sin to use cheat codes that are built into a game by the developers. Copyright infringment to post it on YouTube, though? It seems it is fairly easy to do such, but wether or not posting music videos or videos of games on YouTube is copyright infringment I question myself - where are the CAF legal experts when you need them?

Depends on a lot of things. For instance, if Youtube is posting ads on the video, then that means it was likely screened and accepted by the video game publisher, and the video is totally legit.

If the video is not-for-profit, and just about teaching or possibly even just showing off, then there might be a “fair-use” case for the video. Even if it is blatant copyright infringement, it is the sin of the one infringing, and the responsibility of the publisher and/or Youtube to find and remove it.

The OP or any other viewer is under no obligation to “unlearn” and not use any knowledge gained from the video.

 

[thistle]

Let me try to explain it better.
We both play a video game together where we are like little people in a town. You make money and pretend like weare living our own little life. The person I am playing with found a trick on YouTube on how to get money very easily. The video, if I am correct, might be considered copyright infringement which I learned is a sin. So he asked me if I would let him change the date of the game to get the money and I tell him “no” because I worry about letting him do it because it may be a sin on my part to let him use the method he learned from the video. But I am scrupulous so I wanted to ask you guys.
I sincerely apologize for making such a confusing post. I have made some of those recently.

I would say he’s not committing a sin and anyway its none of your business if he wants to do that or not.

 

[Elizium23]

I would say he’s not committing a sin and anyway its none of your business if he wants to do that or not.

Most online games rely on player reports for many discipline issues. So again, if these cheat codes are not the kind built into the game and sanctioned by the developers, the OP should report his friend to the game moderators so that they can review his behavior and apply discipline if necessary.

And I don’t believe they are built-in; of the many games I have played which have virtual currency of some kind, the currency itself is the reward for prowess in the game and must be earned, and cannot be magicked up except by exploiting bugs, which is what may have been found; but as I said, more often than not, promises to gain virtual currency are actually scams designed to capture account credentials and other personal information that you should not be giving out to shady, fly-by-night organizations or people on the Internet.

If the makers of the cheat have actually discovered a bug that allows someone to create their own virtual currency, then it is ethically required of you to inform the game developers of this bug. Sometimes it is written into the Terms of Service for the game. But it just stands to reason that if you want a level playing field, and you don’t want to be pwned from orbit by people with massive amounts of cash trampling those who don’t exploit the bug, it naturally follows that you should do what is in your power to see that the bug is properly discovered and rectified as soon as possible. Cheaters should be suspended or banned according to their actions. It is just punishment.

 

[RedDuke50]

Thank you for the replies. I should have clarified earlier that this game is for the Gamecube. So it doesn’t really have accounts or anything. The money is called “bells” in the game and it is like a cute little animal city. The cheats are, I am pretty sure, built into the game since the bank in the game gives you money if you do something. I also thought it was wrong since it may have been taken from the studyguide or something but I suppose there is no way to tell that.