Dungeons and Dragons Exploring a New Edition

[Anthony]

This assumes that the disks themselves haven't deteriorated beyond recovery. Magnetic media doesn't really last all that long.

[Rocket Man]

Originally Posted by Anthony

This assumes that the disks themselves haven't deteriorated beyond recovery. Magnetic media doesn't really last all that long.

Two or three years shouldn't be that decrepit. :) Yes, I hung on to a floppy drive long after everyone else kicked theirs to the curb.

[Malenfant]

Originally Posted by Kuroshima

Sign in into any free cloud storage provider, and upload your books there. Hell, sign in into multiple ones, and keep a copy of them in all of them.

Or sign up to iDrive. It's an online backup system that automatically backs up your files en masse to remote servers. Pretty cheap too, all things considered. The only downside is having to upload all your stuff to it in the first place (which can take a long time), but after that the backups are incremental.

The advantage is that if something drastic happens (e.g. your house burns down and you lose everything including your backup drives) then you can just restore the lot from the online backup when you get a new computer.

[RogerBW]

Originally Posted by Malenfant

Or sign up to [...] an online backup system

Assuming that nobody in the USA decides that your chosen backup provider is an Evil Copyright Infringing Pirate and shuts the whole company down, with legitimate users' data never returned to them.

Not that that could possibly happen.

[Mylon]

Originally Posted by RogerBW

Assuming that nobody in the USA decides that your chosen backup provider is an Evil Copyright Infringing Pirate and shuts the whole company down, with legitimate users' data never returned to them.

Not that that could possibly happen.

This is only a concern if they get shut down while your computer happens to broken!

[Mailanka]

Originally Posted by RogerBW

Assuming that nobody in the USA decides that your chosen backup provider is an Evil Copyright Infringing Pirate and shuts the whole company down, with legitimate users' data never returned to them.

Not that that could possibly happen.

Originally Posted by Mylon

This is only a concern if they get shut down while your computer happens to broken!

Yeah, the nature of a back-up is that it's a back-up. You keep your data on your computer AND on the online back-up drive. And, IMO, it's worth investing in an external hard drive that you back up to once a month or so. Then your house would have to burn down WHILE the company is being seized as a "pirate's den" before you'd lose all your data.

[Malenfant]

Originally Posted by RogerBW

Assuming that nobody in the USA decides that your chosen backup provider is an Evil Copyright Infringing Pirate and shuts the whole company down, with legitimate users' data never returned to them.

Not that that could possibly happen.

It wouldn't. You're the only person that can access your data (and it's encrypted too, IIRC). There's no "sharing" or anything else involved that could possibly be construed as "piracy" or "copyright infringement".

[roguebfl]

Originally Posted by Malenfant

There's no "sharing" or anything else involved that could possibly be construed as "piracy" or "copyright infringement".

Except for the fact the copyright law currently has weaken the backup provision, such that sharing isn't a requirement for it to be "copyright infringement"

[jeff_wilson]

Originally Posted by Malenfant

It wouldn't. You're the only person that can access your data (and it's encrypted too, IIRC). There's no "sharing" or anything else involved that could possibly be construed as "piracy" or "copyright infringement".

How are people prevented from sharing their access to their backup files with other people?

[ak_aramis]

Originally Posted by jeff_wilson

How are people prevented from sharing their access to their backup files with other people?

Officially? the EULA usually forbids sharing the password.

In practice? ony by deletion of accounts when they find the access credentials posted online.