EU Court Rules That Downloadable Games Can Be Resold By Consumers

luke_c

Big Boss
OP
Member
Joined
Jun 16, 2008
Messages
3,587
Trophies
0
Age
29
Location
Land of England
Website
gbatemp.net
XP
915
Country
gallery_128734_403_10444.jpg


This looks like trouble for services such as Steam, Origin, GOG and even the PlayStation Store and Xbox Live Marketplace. An EU court, more specifically the Court of Justice, has ruled that publishers cannot stop you from re-selling games that you have bought and downloaded.

"An author of software cannot oppose the resale of his 'used' licences allowing the use of his programs downloaded from the internet."

This ruling effectively means that you could buy a game from Steam, complete it in a day and then sell it on straight away to a friend, regardless of any EULAs that have been signed by the consumer. This is a huge blow to corporations, but a massive step forward for gamers everywhere. Well; in the EU at least.

For more in-depth information on the ruling visit the source link below.


:arrow: Source
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 person

RupeeClock

Colors 3D Snivy!
Member
Joined
May 15, 2008
Messages
6,495
Trophies
1
Age
34
Website
Visit site
XP
2,927
Country
This is going to cause a shitstorm of license management for literally EVERYONE, not just companies that sell digital games.

Microsoft, Apple, Adobe, Norton, just about digital software produced for PC for example. They may have to accomodate ways for users to sell their digital copy to another and revoke their license.
 

jalaneme

Female Gamer
Member
Joined
Nov 27, 2006
Messages
6,262
Trophies
1
Location
London
Website
www.youtube.com
XP
650
Country
Hopefully this will put a end to restrictive DRM, this is the only thing that is holding digital downloads back, especially on the ps3, you can't gameshare as Sony ban you for doing so.

I hope in the future something can be done about forcing you to be online when playing a single player game, that is very annoying.
 

raulpica

With your drill, thrust to the sky!
Former Staff
Joined
Oct 23, 2007
Messages
11,056
Trophies
0
Location
PowerLevel: 9001
XP
5,716
Country
Italy
1. Buy awesome game on Indie Bundle
2. Wait for Indie Bundle to end
3. Sell the uber-cheap game for normalprice-15%
4. ????
5. PROFIT !!!

Additional step: buy more than one indie bundle, repeat steps for X number of copies for additional profit
 
  • Like
Reactions: 4 people

jamesaa

The Prince of Insufficient Light
Member
Joined
Jan 8, 2006
Messages
677
Trophies
1
XP
1,337
The problem I see here is that Steam/Origin need to include the ability for you to sell games (or at least a transfer licence thing), and I don't see that happening.

I am also not too sure either if they lawfully need to include such an option or wether this law is more applicable to for example CD-Key like systems where you don't need to have your games tied to an account, where there wouldn't be anything stopping you from selling on a game other than the EULA.
 

Satangel

BEAST
Member
Joined
Nov 27, 2006
Messages
10,307
Trophies
1
Age
31
Location
Bruges, Belgium
XP
1,525
Country
Belgium
How in the hell do you re-sell downloadable games?
You pretty much sell your account. So you have a account with 1+ game on it pretty much. If you gameshare using one method for the PS3 you'll have a lot of accounts.
QFT. It's weird but I just found out about this like yesterday, and now this (great) news comes up. You could trade accounts before, but it was a very shady way and people got banned sometimes by Steam.
This is really a MAJOR hit for Steam and Origin and all that shit, no I can just buy a Steam acc with like 10 games on it for 20 USD (if I would buy those 10 games via Steam store, I would lose about 100 USD), and Steam can't do anything anymore to stop it.....
 

Rasas

Banned!
Banned
Joined
Apr 7, 2010
Messages
643
Trophies
0
XP
142
Country
United States
Ya, you do risk getting banned but since if you do this frequently you'll only have one game on your account it isn't a big deal since you weren't going to go back and play it probably.
 

EyeZ

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
Dec 4, 2009
Messages
2,652
Trophies
0
XP
1,106
I should think not too, you paid your cash for the game, so that game becomes your property, and what you do with your own property is your business.

I can see this becoming a minefield for downloadable games tho, especially with the Ubi Soft titles.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 person

the_randomizer

The Temp's official fox whisperer
Member
Joined
Apr 29, 2011
Messages
31,284
Trophies
2
Age
38
Location
Dr. Wahwee's castle
XP
18,967
Country
United States
This is going to cause a shitstorm of license management for literally EVERYONE, not just companies that sell digital games.

Microsoft, Apple, Adobe, Norton, just about digital software produced for PC for example. They may have to accomodate ways for users to sell their digital copy to another and revoke their license.

That, my dear fellow, is why hackers are a godsend. They make those who paid for legit games not suffer for long; I once purchased Splinter Cell Conviction for the PC, then after a year, I had to reinstall Windows. Guess what? I couldn't obtain the license key Ubisoft gave for the game, I would have to buy the game again, so, I installed a patch that removed the DRM. And companies wonder why piracy is rampant.

You know what they say, Karma is a real b**ch.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 5 people

qlum

Posting when needed
Member
Joined
Sep 25, 2008
Messages
563
Trophies
1
Location
The Pirate Homeworld
Website
Visit site
XP
265
Country
Netherlands
Actually as far as I know as part of a earlier statement keys may still be bound to accounts; it is just that selling your account would not be illegal nor would it be illegal what those cd key resellers are doing.
 

notmeanymore

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
Nov 29, 2009
Messages
2,700
Trophies
1
XP
711
Country
United States
Here's where they have a chance to make things right.

Steam, being a digital rights distributor, could easily make games tradeable and/or resellable. However, if they add a surcharge to all transactions of that nature, it would appease the courts, the copyright owners, and the users.

I have no problem paying $2 to swap Steam games with someone if I know that $2 goes to developers.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 7 people

Hotzdevil

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
Sep 7, 2009
Messages
460
Trophies
1
Age
39
Location
Dimapur, Nagaland
XP
272
Country
India
This is a major hit for companies who have been slowly trying to ease their way into selling all their products (in this matter Games) online and not through Discs(whichever format) with one of their sole excuses being piracy, but now with this order it is gonna start biting them back in real painful way :yay:
 

Guild McCommunist

(not on boat)
Member
Joined
May 6, 2009
Messages
18,148
Trophies
0
Age
31
Location
The Danger Zone
XP
10,323
Country
United States
This is a major hit for companies who have been slowly trying to ease their way into selling all their products (in this matter Games) online and not through Discs(whichever format) with one of their sole excuses being piracy, but now with this order it is gonna start biting them back in real painful way :yay:

I'm sorry but this whole dickish attitude just gets to me.

You're complaining about these companies trying to rip you off when they're selling you luxury products that you play. Then, to congratulate them for a product you enjoyed, you just spit in their face and try to "bite them back" by selling their products to someone else so they get jack squat. I don't care if you do game trading or something, but doing it with the attitude of "sticking it to the man" over a pure luxury product for things you enjoy is just really fucking annoying.

I wish gamers would stop being complaining, bitchy assholes and just enjoyed the games they purchased instead of trying to spite the people who make their entertainment.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 2 people

Rydian

Resident Furvert™
Member
Joined
Feb 4, 2010
Messages
27,880
Trophies
0
Age
36
Location
Cave Entrance, Watching Cyan Write Letters
Website
rydian.net
XP
9,111
Country
United States
This is great news from a right standpoint (it's a blow to companies trying to remove consumer rights), but as stated it's going to be a hassle on companies like steam.

Not surprised this is in the EU, which is known for this sort of thing (strong consumer protection laws, like the ones that came into play during the PS3 OtherOS removal situation).
 
  • Like
Reactions: 2 people

nando

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
Jan 1, 2008
Messages
2,263
Trophies
0
Website
Visit site
XP
1,023
Country
United States
This is going to cause a shitstorm of license management for literally EVERYONE, not just companies that sell digital games.

Microsoft, Apple, Adobe, Norton, just about digital software produced for PC for example. They may have to accommodate ways for users to sell their digital copy to another and revoke their license.


You can resell most software. some software tied specifically to a machine allows for the transfer between users.

this may give Nintendo cold feet about selling retail games as downloads for the wiiu
 

VMM

Hamon > Stand
Member
Joined
Jul 1, 2010
Messages
3,132
Trophies
2
Age
33
XP
2,242
Country
Brazil
Great news,
it looks corporations will have a lot of trouble with this,
but for almost every consumer, this could be nothing but good news
 

Site & Scene News

Popular threads in this forum

General chit-chat
Help Users
  • AdRoz78 @ AdRoz78:
    Hey, I bought a modchip today and it says "New 2040plus" in the top left corner. Is this a legit chip or was I scammed?
  • Veho @ Veho:
    @AdRoz78 start a thread and post a photo of the chip.
    +2
  • Xdqwerty @ Xdqwerty:
    Yawn
  • S @ salazarcosplay:
    and good morning everyone
    +1
  • K3Nv2 @ K3Nv2:
    @BakerMan, his partner is Luke
  • Sicklyboy @ Sicklyboy:
    Sup nerds
    +1
  • Flame @ Flame:
    oh hi, Sickly
  • K3Nv2 @ K3Nv2:
    Oh hi flame
  • S @ salazarcosplay:
    @K3Nv2 what was your ps4 situation
  • S @ salazarcosplay:
    did you always have a ps4 you never updated
  • S @ salazarcosplay:
    or were you able to get new ps4 tracking it \
    as soon as the hack was announced
  • S @ salazarcosplay:
    or did you have to find a used one with the lower firm ware that was not updated
  • K3Nv2 @ K3Nv2:
    I got this ps4 at launch and never updated since 9.0
  • K3Nv2 @ K3Nv2:
    You got a good chance of buying a used one and asking the seller how often they used or even ask for a Pic of fw and telling them not to update
  • RedColoredStars @ RedColoredStars:
    Speaking of PLaystation. I see Evilnat put out a beta for PS3 CFW 4.91.2 on the 22nd.
  • K3Nv2 @ K3Nv2:
    Don't really see the point in updating it tbh
  • BigOnYa @ BigOnYa:
    Yea you right, I thought about updating my PS3 CFW to 4.91, but why really, everything plays fine now. I guess for people that have already updated past 4.9 it would be helpful.
  • K3Nv2 @ K3Nv2:
    Idk if online servers are still active that would be my only thought
    +1
  • BigOnYa @ BigOnYa:
    Thats true, personally I don't play it online at all, in fact, I deleted all wifi details on it once I installed CFW, so it won't connect and auto-update itself
  • BigOnYa @ BigOnYa:
    I play most games that are on both PS3/360 strickly on the 360, but PS3 exclusives are really only games I play on the PS3 (You know me, I'm more of a Xbox junkie)
  • K3Nv2 @ K3Nv2:
    Ps3 really has no titles worth going online over nps is the only reason you'd want wifi
  • BigOnYa @ BigOnYa:
    what is nps?
  • Xdqwerty @ Xdqwerty:
    @K3Nv2, what about GTA v onl... O Yea the PS3 versión got discontinued
    Xdqwerty @ Xdqwerty: @K3Nv2, what about GTA v onl... O Yea the PS3 versión got discontinued