News EU court rules second-hand sales of digital goods legal

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/gaming/2012/07/04/curia-digital-distribution/1

 

Wow, landmark indeed.

Can the TOS of Steam etc be changed to say that we're effectively leasing the games from them on a permanent basis, i.e. not actually making a purchase, but entering a rental agreement?

 

http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=233462

I think someone in that thread pointed out that they say we are subscribers, and subscribing to products, rather than buying.

 

http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=233462

tut tut slow news lol

edit:

with steam , whislt the EULA says we are subscribers - they are selling lifetime subscriptions for the games they `sell` , therefore this ruling could mean you are free to pass along that lfietime subscription for said game

what steam should do is open a marketplace , where they take a cut from the games then resold.

edit 2:

the law alrleady applies to STEAM whether they like it or not:

 

love the sardonic reply sir!

of further note - 2 observations- i wonder what would be in place , if the cd key is banned for cheating , in say COD , could it then be detached , transfered to a new account then started again as fresh?


also , with online DRM (say Diablo 3) how does this effect it? and will online DRM being resold be the next target?

 

An important consequence of this ruling is that Steam/Origin cannot back out by saying it's a rental agreement - if it's effectively a lifelong/perpetual rental, it's deemed to be equivalent to a sale and much be treated as such.

Valve will probably be smart enough to open a trading marketplace of their own, taking a cut of transactions and making millions in the process (heck, they've got rich from selling virtual hats).

 

The thing is, it costs content providers money to provide the download for the 2nd, 3rd, nth owner.
If software is consistently re-sold, it could end up eating all the revenue from the first sale.

I wonder if we'll see a "download charge" placed upon 2nd-hand sales, to offset the costs of distribution.

 

That could be a worry for Steam users, personally I like the fact that i don't need to litter my HD with multi-gb games which I might not play again, its reassuring I can just download it again in a few hours if I felt like it.

Were steam to go down that road it would certainly impact its utility.

If they were to charge non-original owners to download I can see it reducing the price of the used games to level where you wouldn't bother especially with the steam sales meaning some games have virtually no value to the user.

 

EA Store had this kind of stuff, and it was 6 months.

 

Doesnt this just ultimatley mean everyone will just bump on their prices on everything?

 

Don't think is possible under UK law for them to allow us to 'BUY' it, then class it as a rental.
If they state the are subscribing it to us, then they are not allow to SELL a product, as to sell means to own.

Steam T&C will change

 

so when can i sell all my games on steam i never play ?

 

this will change nothing as long as it does not specifically state that they must provide the mean to transfer. Companies will just stop trying to sue in such cases and life will continue status quo.

 

I apologise for the brevity of my post. Next time, I will be sure to extend my web surfing break (whilst waiting for my experiments to run) and find my nearest Computer room to provide a carefully prepared 874-word analysis instead of a typed-on-my-mobile 24 word summary as i had done before. I look forward to the decrease in experimental productivity that i shall now be receiving!

^^

 

I think its a good thing obviously, as 2nd hand sales are always good, but what's the difference in buying a 2nd hand game of someone that's a download to getting it off steam. I always used to buy new discs over 2nd hand as I never knew what the person before had done, but downloaded games wont have this problem.

 

Sounds like this could be a big ruling, and I approve of it in theory as someone who has always been willing to wait a few months and pick up games for a less ridiculous price.

In practice I imagine it will just mean more and more of these single use "bonus content" codes that come with new games, or potentially more release day paid dlc. The games industry is too much a part of the corporate world now to give up on any income stream without a fight.