These websites - legal or not?

[RinoaHeartilly]

I was wondering if the following two websites were legal/moral or not? The first offers video game music for free if the game doesn’t have a soundtrack available for purchase or if the soundtrack isn’t available in North America. The second offers downloads for Japanese novellas that also are unavailable for purchase in North America (it also says in its Terms of Use that the books are available legally under the Fair Use Act). Both immediately remove any downloads for products that have become available in the U.S., and neither have ever been shut down for legal reasons, but I was wondering if it was still morally okay to download from these websites? I will admit I have downloaded several soundtracks from the first website and ten novellas from the second (all were unattainable through other means, except to order the books directly from Japan), but I would like a second opinion, since I’m still unsure

gh.ffshrine.org/popular.php
baka-tsuki.org/project/

 

[GEddie]

I have no idea as to the legality.

Morally, if the content provided is otherwise unavailable in NA, I can’t imagine why it would be wrong.

ICXC NIKA

 

[suko]

I was wondering if the following two websites were legal/moral or not?
gh.ffshrine.org/popular.php
baka-tsuki.org/project/

In regards to the 1st link… it’s a violation of copyright law since it seems they’ve uploaded the music from officially licensed soundtracks for people to download (more than likely without permission from each of the copyright holders). Now while some of these OSTs may not be purchasable in the U.S., I’m pretty certain most, if not all of them can be legally bought/imported on many different sites such as Ebay, Amazon US & Japan, CDJapan, etc…

For the 2nd link, it’s illegal, too. I see this one all the time on Crunchyroll, and it always gets removed. Simply put, fan translations (without permission) are a copyright infringement and that is illegal.

and neither have ever been shut down for legal reasons

There are some sites that do, and some sites that don’t get targeted. It really comes down to the copyright owners doing something, but sometimes they may not know about these particular sites, or just haven’t bothered to do anything about it because they may see it as free advertising for their stuff, or they simply don’t care.

To sum up here, I believe part of being a faithful Christian is abiding by the just laws of the country one resides in, so long as it doesn’t oppose particular Church teachings.

Note: Copyright laws do differ from country to country, though.

Edit: Nice FFVIII username btw!

 

[RinoaHeartilly]

Thanks for these replies, they’ve helped clarify a lot I’ll delete the stuff I’ve downloaded (I think it would just be easier instead of trying to justify the use of these websites).
In that case, since ffshrine.org is illegal, anyone know where I can legally purchase the soundtracks for the first three Crash Bandicoot games on the PSX? I want to give them to my little cousin for either Christmas or his b’day but I can’t seem to find the soundtracks anywhere.

Nice FFVIII username btw!

Thanks! I downloaded FFVIII from the PSN a few months ago. Love it!

 

[edwest2]

A friend of mine orders things from Japan all the time, but note that some things may not play on foreign equipment, and other things are prohibited from being exported. Also, Japanese morality is not the same as Western/Christian morality, so be careful.

Peace,
Ed

 

[Joe_5859]

I know that’s true with DVDs, but aren’t CDs region free? I have several Japanese versions of CDs and many other CDs that are imports from other parts of the globe, and they all play just fine on any CD player I have ever tried.

Japanese CDs are generally much more expensive that their counterparts, though. But they seem to have all the video game music a person could ever want.

 

[GEddie]

I know that’s true with DVDs, but aren’t CDs region free? I have several Japanese versions of CDs and many other CDs that are imports from other parts of the globe, and they all play just fine on any CD player I have ever tried.

Japanese CDs are generally much more expensive that their counterparts, though. But they seem to have all the video game music a person could ever want.

For the most part, CD is region free.