Cheat Engine

[sattarahmed47]

Hi read the EULA for tomb raider 2013 (not allowed to post URLs for some reason but anyone can Google it and find it for reference)

It says the following:-

"In order to use the [b]Services[/b], you must not do any of the following:-
(iii) copy, scrape, reproduce, redisplay, reverse engineer, decompile, hack, exploit, or modify the Services, including any server or network used to provide the Services (except to the extent enforcement of the foregoing is prohibited by applicable law)(vi) cheat, use unauthorized exploits, or create an unfair advantage in the Services or any other Crystal/Eidos games or services; (vii) create, develop, modify, distribute, use, promote, advertise, sell, commercialize, or otherwise exploit any unauthorized software, service, tool, or scheme to cheat or create an advantage in any [u]offline[/u], online, or multiplayer modes of the Services or any Crystal/Eidos games or services"

Does this mean in a nutshell that you are not allowed to use cheat engine or any other cheats even when you are offline? Or does it mean "services" in which the game itself does not fall into the category of a "service" Can anyone plz clarify. Thanks in advance!

[ParkourPenguin]

The EULA should clearly define what a "Service" is near the beginning. It probably includes practically everything about the game.

Yes, using CE violates nearly all EULAs out there. No, they aren't going to enforce any breaches of contract unless you start to affect their profit. No multiplayer shenanigans, and try to avoid weird leaderboard records. You'll be fine as long as you keep what you're doing to yourself.

I'm not a lawyer, this is not legal advice, take this with a grain of salt

[sattarahmed47]

Did some research service is different from game client. Service is what the production house provides over internet which is servers and other online stuff. The game itself is the game client in this case which is separate from the service.

Furthermore, I don't think it violates EULA in single player offline games. Even if it seems to do so it nullifies violation as it falls under fair use as their profit is not hurt.

Also just my own opinion I'm not a legal expert and just quoting what I've deducted from my own personal research.

[sattarahmed47]

Also Ethically speaking, it's no one's damn business what I choose to do in my single player, offline, individual, personal and private space with a copy of a video game program I legitimately purchased.

[Csimbi]

Tomb raider 2013 is not a service. It is a software product you purchased.
If it were running in the cloud, it could be considered a service.
That's the excuse for multiplayer games anyway.
In offline use, you do whatever you want.

Consider a car.
You buy your car and use it, go shop, carry furniture, ram into trees, etc. It's all on you.
But the moment you start using it for something else than that, the car maker can void your warranty and you might also need to pay extra taxes and registration fees (racing, taxiing, etc.). They can't take away your car though.

Software follows the same logic, that is the reason why they want online activation for everything these days. Just keep not buying anything with online activation.

Also, I would not worry much of these EULAs as they are open to interpretation. As long as you don't steal software and keep your reverse engineering offline, no harm can come to you.
If you are serious and want to be able to hack anything you want, you need to become a white glove hacker, then your arse is protected from anything, pretty much.

[sattarahmed47]

Another example perhaps:-

I buy a superman action figure. I take it home dismantle it and add a bunch of cool features like making the action figure be able to move around and fly with the help of a remote control.

As long as keep my cool new remote control superman action figure to myself it's all cool but when I decide to sell or give my action figure to someone else or buy more action figures, enhance them and sell/distribute them then an argument of Crossing the line can be made.

[ParkourPenguin]

Sure, except you don't buy a game the same way you buy a car or an action figure. When you purchase those items, ownership of the item is transferred from the other party to you. Regarding games, the agreement is that you give the other party your money, and in return, the other party grants you a license to play their game. The other party retains ownership of the game. Legally speaking, you don't own the games you play- this includes some (not all) single player games. What you're allowed to do with the game is defined by the terms of the license granted to you. If you violate those terms, the license can be revoked. No game, no refund.
e.g. violate Steam's ToS and they might decide to delete your account, along with all the games you purchased.

There's precedence for multiplayer games, but regarding single player games specifically, I don't think this has ever been challenged in court. I don't think anyone would even try. There might've been at least one story about a developer not liking people using CE on their single player game, but I don't remember it, so probably nothing came of it.
If anyone did try, I don't know whether or not it would hold up. I do know it would cost an exorbitant amount of money for the average person, and that would be good enough for the big video game companies to deter any dissidence... but they aren't going to, because who cares? It's a single player game.

TLDR: Legally speaking, using CE on some single player games isn't allowed. Practically speaking, it's fine, nobody cares, do whatever you want

[sattarahmed47]

Well even if it is violating EULA in single player mode, I would hardly call it illegal for 3 reasons. i) as you mentioned previously that nobody cares ii) no proven monetary damage attributed to the devs (but could be the other way around in my case at least) iii) for personal and private use only thus not effecting anyone else's experience which falls under fair use (US) or fair dealing (Canada).

Hence even though hacking single player games might be violating EULA, nobody cares but that does not mean that devs don't have the right to ban the CE User (extermely rare chance). Bottom line is EULAs exist to serve the primary goal of game devs which is to sell their games and get more money through micro-transactions. They are not stupid, even they probably realize that that is a whole market segment of reverse engineers, hackers, and cheaters (single player) out there who they can be financed by as well hence generally they tolerate such behavior as long as it does not hinder their revenue.

[sattarahmed47]

So I spent some time doing more research on EULAs and their legal standing. Turns out they don't have a 100% legal standing after all. Most of the games we buy (including TR 2013) are bought under a perpetual license and not a subscription one (world of warcraft, Microsoft office etc). Any software you buy and download on your personal computer with a perpetual license is always considered a Product and NOT a service. Furthermore the terms in the EULA of perpetual license which say that this is licensed and not sold refers to the intellectual property of the production house not the copy of that property which is "Sold" to you. Therefore any non-reproductive use of that perpetual licensed software in which you don't use any online service(Where TOS comes into play), in other words personal/offline/single player use, is completely legal.

[ParkourPenguin]

Good point. I'm not a lawyer and I don't know enough about law to say if that's technically correct, but I don't have any reason to believe any of that is wrong. One note, however: