If you copy, at least link the article:
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/07/03/crikey-eu-rules-you-can-resell-downloaded-games
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If you link, at least use the [link]NOSPACE(http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/07/03/crikey-eu-rules-you-can-resell-downloaded-games) tags:
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This is great news ! When exactly will this be implemented though, anybody know ?
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But when will it come to it? Never. Do you know those guys from the European Commission? They will just make a new law. (€_€)
And btw.: Look at Steam/Origin/ishit: You just cannot resell a redeemed game. And Steam won't implement this feature for sure. And they don't need to do it. So what we will get is: MOAR DRM! But of course the sign the court gives is good, but it has just no effect, imho.
link, German
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From my link:
"A product activation can and may exclude a resale. Only the manufacturer or dealer must indicate in advance, so that the software is not to be faulty."
So Origin & Steam is fine. E.g. MS has problems now, beacuse selling an OEM Windows copy is legal now.
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It's a related case about the Steam DRM you're reffering to. German highest court, "Bundesgerichtshof"- Consumer Advice Center vs. Valve, Az. I ZR 178/08
link german again, sry
So my reply was reffering to the Steam DRM, too.
The EU-court don't change these rules, so the situation in Germany is: nothing happens, beacuse writing "WARNING: STEAM" is enough. (only MS and those other few may have a problem now). In other countrys there are for sure similar laws/court decisions, I guess.
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The ruling means that gamers in European Union member states are free to sell their downloaded games, whether they're from Steam, Origin or another digital platform - no matter what End User License Agreement has been signed.
The ruling continues: "Therefore, even if the licence agreement prohibits a further transfer, the rightholder can no longer oppose the resale of that copy."
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reworking would be easy if they make it like GMG buy back for some games, then they can even take a share from every resale if they code it right.
I think that idea can make me spend more
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even if valve cared... it would mean they they were free to sell their cd key (which would not be able to be activated again) not that they would need to implement a system to trade already activated games. basically screwed over on steamworks games and games that don't have keys but still have modified steam executables.. the executables are steam's still...
anyway most games are steam are not "authored" by valve, so unless you count the modified executables and allow no room for them to wiggle past by stating that they are linked to their services rather than the games themselves..
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could be expensive... EU isn't small and I guess without those 1$=1€ rip off their profit would go down. Think of the companies!
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As I said, you can't resell a Steam/Origin game, beacuse you can't activate again. But e.g. a Windows copy would work. People already sued Valve because of Half Life 2. A simple key protection is enough. But maybe selling an account is legal now, at least in the EU. But hell, if Valve bans you account for selling an account, where to sue them? They dont have an address for service in the EU. Not sure, I'm no lawyer. time will show what happens. I'll go with the EU-Commission, changing the law...
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Increase US prices at least twice (EU is 3rd in number of people 'country', right after China and India)? Then Steam would sink faster then Titanic.
But I guess all we can see is people openly offering to sell their accounts and Valve that can't do shaite about it.
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This could stifle the recent bundle explosion. Developers wouldn't want to come on board of a new HIB or IndieGala. The only way for them to participate would be raising the minimum. The bundle market would change, that's for sure.
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There is one condition, however. If you resell a license to a game you have to make your copy "unusable at the time of resale". Now you will do that, won't you?
So, if you sell/gift a game from your steam/origin library, it would become unavailable to you because you sold it. Seams reasonable and fine with me, as long as I am allowed to get rid of it if I want to do so.
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I don't even think there's going to be money lost - they could implement trade-ins like GMG, so you could instead of reselling the game / giving it away, return it to Steam and get 25% of its value as credit - to purchase something at Steam again. So... more money for them, more satisfied customers, and when customers are happy with the service, they will spend even more money...
And what they lose in those 25% is already covered by the tons of money they earn when they don't give you the copy of a game that comes in a bundle but you already own it.
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Wtf? No idea what you guys speculate about. But for steam this wont have ANY effect. Since steam is not supposed to give us a possibilty to sell our games. Why would they even do that. Publisher will just look for possibilites now to bind their serial keys to a client we cant resell the games from, like Origin,Steam and stuff.
Edit: This is just terrible. I buy a DRM free game, download it and resell it 100 times, nobody knows if I do it legally or not.
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lol no. Steam is not forced to technically aid you selling your games
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You're right, but Steam already obeys this rule. You can buy a game at Steam and sell it to another person (Thats what those key selling websites do) and Steam tolerates this. With that rule, they also must explicitely allow this.
However, it's not sure if this applies when you explicitely bind a game to your account. The good thing is, Valve always tries to prevent any problems of this kind (and forces you to enter your age every time, doesn't sell games that could be forbidden in your country etc.) so we can hope they will follow that rule regardless
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I've just read a german news article and they are arguing like me. It is now legal to sell used digital games, but the distributer is allowed to technically prevent this, for example by binding it to an account
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So, since when is bad to get free games... in a giveaway site?
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I'd like a firm statement against asshole companies that sells games with limited activations, too
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They just need to implement a move to inventory option. So you can right click a game in your list, choose the option which removes it and allows it to be tradable. If you then trade it the cd key would come up as already used to everyone but the person who got the game.
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If Steam would have to allow reselling, then it shouldn't affect sales, or it would just increase sales of big hits and stop sales of shitty things (since nobody would sell good games since they will want to play it, and everybody would sell bad games).
And if they want money? "To pack your game into gift you have to pay 10% of it's value, are you sure?".
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I would imagine people beating games and then selling them, like "Man I put in 200 hours of Skyrim, so bored, time to sell".
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Well, I can't imagine that, because I think they thoughts would rather be "Man, I put 200 hours in Skyrim, time to delete torrent".
Well, of course there will be some resellers, but I think that won't hurt Steam nor Origin, and I'm pretty sure Valve could make it in a way that would boost their income (like that 10% of Value to pack game - they get money for resale, and knowing life guy who would resale want that money to buy some other game anyway, so it will come back to them). Reselling exists on consoles and they still exist, right?
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That doesn't make a lot of sense...this has nothing to do with piracy, I would sell some of my better games because I got bored of them.
But yeah this wont totally kill the market, I can see it being more profitable to an individual then used sales on consoles though since most people would think it easier then dealing with gamstop(rip off) or ebay/etc...
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Well, my point was that I can't imagine large number of PC players that buy PC games with "I'll buy game and when I'm done with it I resell it" since it's much easier, cheaper and quite possibly faster to just pirate them - ergo number of people reselling games would be much smaller then on consoles.
Or maybe even PC market would rise a bit again since console-resellers would start resell games on PC...
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How the hell can you resell DIGITAL content. I see how GMG does it, and it works for them, but you can't force companies to do the same! It just doesn't work that way, especially for some buisness models! It steals money away from the devs from other users who would have bought the game from them. Its horse****!
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Well, you can buy a game from an user which may cost you less than the store one, or you can buy it from a verified store like Steam, even if it's $5 more. You now can choose any of them. If you want to, you can still buy everything from stores, and it'll be the same result: One guy has a copy of the game, and other doesn't. The industry got the money for that game.
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Can someone explain it to me? In Europe we will be able to sell/gift games from our library in Steam?
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Btw, am I allowed to sell WoW Accounts now aswell and Blizzard cant do shit vs me?
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blizzard can wipe all your chars(by putting some fishy clause in EULA) but they can't stop you from selling the game, not account as a whole.
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As far as legislation goes, this probably won't be true to games already bought. We bought games without any prospect of ever reselling them, and any law only affects anything that takes place after it.
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it will be true for all games, they outlaw licence agreement clauses forbidding resale, with no such clauses you can resell any game anytime
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Uhm I already see a huge loophole. OK you sell your right of a game lets say MW3 to your friend. Your friends sells you lets say Assassins Creed 3. Now a month later the same friend resells you AC3 and you resell him MW3. Basically you can trade games for free and play single player games with all the achivements and stuff without having to own the game.
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The Court of Justice of the European Union has ruled that publishers cannot stop you from reselling your downloaded games.
More specifically: "An author of software cannot oppose the resale of his 'used' licences allowing the use of his programs downloaded from the internet."
The Court said the exclusive right of distribution of a copy of a computer program covered by the license is "exhausted on its first sale".
The ruling means that gamers in European Union member states are free to sell their downloaded games, whether they're from Steam, Origin or another digital platform - no matter what End User License Agreement has been signed.
The ruling continues: "Therefore, even if the licence agreement prohibits a further transfer, the rightholder can no longer oppose the resale of that copy."
The ruling suggests that if you've bought a license for a game off your mate, you're within your rights to download it from the publisher's website. "Therefore the new acquirer of the user licence, such as a customer of UsedSoft, may, as a lawful acquirer of the corrected and updated copy of the computer program concerned, download that copy from the copyright holder's website," the Court said.
Whether Valve and EA will make changes to their websites to reflect the ruling remains to be seen.
The ruling in more depth:
"Where the copyright holder makes available to his customer a copy - tangible or intangible - and at the same time concludes, in return form payment of a fee, a licence agreement granting the customer the right to use that copy for an unlimited period, that rightholder sells the copy to the customer and thus exhausts his exclusive distribution right. Such a transaction involves a transfer of the right of ownership of the copy. Therefore, even if the licence prohibits a further transfer, the rightholder can no longer oppose the resale of that copy."
There is one condition, however. If you resell a license to a game you have to make your copy "unusable at the time of resale". Now you will do that, won't you?
"If he continued to use it," the Court explained, "he would infringe the copyright holder's exclusive right of reproduction of his computer program. In contrast to the exclusive right of distribution, the exclusive right of reproduction is not exhausted by the first sale."
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