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EU Court of Justice rules that reselling downloaded games is OK
mere_immortal
So tasty!Registered User regular
So tasty!Registered User regular
So this is rather interesting.
More here: http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/07/03/crikey-eu-rules-you-can-resell-downloaded-games/
The press release: http://curia.europa.eu/jcms/upload/docs/application/pdf/2012-07/cp120094en.pdf
Now I can imagine there will be some some kind of loopholes in place for publishers to avoid this, but right now it paints an interesting picture for DD services and their respective owners.
More subcription servies or limited licenses?
Well here’s some pretty huge news. The Court Of Justice of the European Union has just ruled that people should be able to resell downloaded games. In an environment where publishers are trying to destroy basic consumer rights like the ability to resell physical products you’ve paid for, this could be one heck of a turnaround for customers. And that’s no matter what it might say in the EULAs. This could have absolutely enormous implications on how services like Steam, Origin, GamersGate and the like work, and finally restore some rights back to the gamer.
The draconian and almost inevitably unenforceable rules we all pretend we’ve read and agreed to whenever we buy an online game are packed with ridiculous attempts to remove our rights of ownership. At best, when those rules are held to their letter, we’re long-term renting the games, with no rights to protect their being taken away from us at any point. So a ruling saying we have enough ownership that we can actually sell them on to others is a massive difference. Of course, it does ask one rather huge question: Er, how?
More here: http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/07/03/crikey-eu-rules-you-can-resell-downloaded-games/
The press release: http://curia.europa.eu/jcms/upload/docs/application/pdf/2012-07/cp120094en.pdf
Now I can imagine there will be some some kind of loopholes in place for publishers to avoid this, but right now it paints an interesting picture for DD services and their respective owners.
More subcription servies or limited licenses?
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On a more serious note, this'll be interesting. I wonder if Steam will fight it or somehow make a new marketplace that allows for reselling of games between people? We shall see.
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Could go either way. But can Valve fight the EU? Is it worth the hassle?
Or could they set up a marketplace for this, possibly making some money for themselves and the publishers on a small fee for reselling them?
They already have an inventory system for games. Everything they need to implement this is a way to wrap a game up and put it back in your inventory after activating it.
They're already halfway there with the ability to toss around game passes. Just make all games game pass based, and make it so you can't play it if you don't have a game pass in your inventory.
HA HA i made a funny joke
The only people I can really see fighting this (and have the means to) are Blizzard and EA.
I mean, good fucking luck, but they can try.
In that case would you technically be selling your games back to Steam for them act as the advertiser and seller so they could take the cut?
RPS obviously uses games as an example, but this could be great for students or startup companies who can't afford the newest version of a product.
The grossly simplified answer to that is "how bad do US companies want to make business in EU countries?"
I'm betting on #1.
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Basically valve or any other distributor is not legally required to give you an easy means to sell individual licenses or any such thing.
This basically just means, for Origin and Steam, that you can legally sell your entire account and they cant ban you (As they usually will if they notice your account has changed hands.)
They can't force the companies to alter their platform to allow the transfer of licenses or any such thing. Worst case, they might be legally required to transfer a license if you put in a support ticket? Maybe. Depending on whether you look at Steam as a single bit of software with addons (The game keys.) or as a wrapper for every individual game.
Which is pretty murky in itself.
tl;dr For all the noise this is making, it pretty much amounts to squat unless you plan to sell your entire account.
Yeah, this might be huge but right now I don't know what it's actually gonna mean.
The ruling concerns an entirely different business. We'll have to see what the legalese people say about its application to services like Steam.
I'm pretty sure I remember an article discussing this very matter. Might've been an interview with Gabe? Google is failing me (though one link was to info posted on April 1st, so that's suspect to begin with), but I distinctly recall hearing about Valve at least glancing at some ability to package up a game you had on your account and being able to trade it off. Possible that a fee would be involved in doing so (not sure how they'd do this, but I'm sure they could come up with something reasonable, perhaps basing it off the current price so that companies involved still got a cut of some sort?), and I do think there's some middle ground where people could meet.
Obviously the gifting system they implemented where games can be bought and held onto is a start. Now we'd just need the ability to repackage up ones we've already tied to our account. I'm not sure I'd ever really use such a system unless it was something I didn't enjoy enough to say that I wanted it gone, but it'd be neat to have the option.
You don't think Apple, Google, or Facebook would also fight this? I can see some implications there.
Not to mention it may now be more difficult to sell games in the EU.
But I'm all for it if the platform holders find a way to support it, and doesn't require developer intervention to make it work.
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No, you're right, Apple and Google might.
But Facebook? I wasn't aware Facebook sold licenses for anything at all.
"Gabe Newell: No More Steam Sales until the Ruling is Reversed"
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Depending on how this swings I can see publishers just taking it out on the consumer. 80€ games anyone?
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I was just thinking if in-app currencies may somehow be looped into this, to say that you could resell/transfer those to other people. Maybe, maybe not, it's mostly in the eye of the be-lawyers.
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This has been my thought. Will it be law that Valve and co. have to implement a system that allows users to sell on their games, or is it simply that, hey, they just can't prosecute you if you find some way to do so.
Hell, for that matter, throw Nintendo and Sony into the ring as well. Digital sales may not be a large part of their businesses, but it's there.
Another question would be, does it impact DLC of boxed retail games?
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I'd rather buy a slightly older version of photoshop if I was just learning it than shell out for the newest and most expensive version.
Valve is just unique in that they've deliberately been making this the cornerstone of their market strategy. Amazon Digital, Microsoft, Sony, they may have to accept that download codes can be resold.
When you transfer a car title from one person to another, you cannot give it away. You must sell it, even if it's just $1, so that you can be taxed on the transaction. I'd imagine that a service like steam would do the same, so they could take a cut. if steam even takes 5% of every license transaction, they'd make a killing.
Actually, reselling digital content could be awesome for the games industry as a whole. Imagine if the digital content distributor skimmed a fixed percentage of the sale off the top, and provided the publisher/developer with a cut of what they took. Sudden used game sales look extremely attractive to publishers, and it could turn into a second source of income for these companies. Anything that keeps more devs from going under is a good thing in my book.
That's not really the same thing, though. This is more like selling a used license, as in you could deactivate your license after you've used it, then resell that license.
Actually, in a number of places (including Canada) you can gift a car title. There's a separate form to fill out, but it is possible and pretty easy to do.
Ah, didn't know that. I'll amend what I said to clarify that, in Texas, you can't give a car away. I've sold many a car to family for $1 before.
What if online games keep track of how many times a license has been transferred, and you have to pay for a new multiplayer license if your license has been activated more than once?
No company is under any compulsion by this ruling, by the documents listed here and the actual court notes, to produce any way for you to get your license, or deactivate it. This was stated no where in the ruling, notes or deliberations. So they would have to go to court all over again if people wanted to push this. So if Steam/valve/Amazon/et al feel no need to alter their platform, they are not legally required to do so. You have to figure out how to sell it, they don't have to help you.
Secondly, while you're allowed to sell your license, if its connected to a user profile (Like uplay, origin, whatever.) there is nothing in the ruling that states the publishers have to deactivate the activation, either. So while you can sell the data and key, if the key wont register on their servers thats also none of their problem.
Third, and also important: Is Steam/Origin a service or no? You can't access your games without them. You cant seperate the games from them. I just checked my library and only about 30 of my games have actual CD keys I can access. Its incredibly easy to argue from a legal standpoint that Steam/Origin are a service. If they are a service, its automatically exempt. That's right there in the notations are part of the EUs handling of copyright.
Last. It states in the ruling that while a resold product can't be hindered in any way, at the time of resale any obligation or contract to update the software can be nullified and its not the publishers/providers problem. Since that agreement was made with the original buyer and does not extend to resales. (So, for instance, Steam could then sell you the rights to have your games updated. hah.)
Basically, this isn't that great except for individually bought things you have keys for that can be easily transfered. (Like, say, a copy of Norton Antivirus or photoshop.) It's a nice inroad for things in the future, but after combing through the actual legal argle-blargle it isn't like Steam or EA are suddenly in any kind of situation.