this post was submitted on 27 May 2024
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Lol. That's hilarious. But unfortunately you never owned the games in the first place. You rented the privilege to play the game for life?...life of the rental company or your life only? Oh man, we gotta go thru the small print on this.
I understand for the life of the company. But it's not even my steam account. It's my child's who's currently -5 years old (give or take). I did create it on their behalf a decade ago to redeem the free games on their behalf and gift them games I think they'll enjoy.
The small print just says "lol gottem"
Who knows, one day a court may find these terms could lead people into believing they're buying a game and force some companies to allow us to to trade or resell them (an EU court most probably).
Purchased should mean what it means for other things like cars or apples...you get a copy of an apple via a purchase and you are guaranteed to be able to use that apple in any manner you please. So for example, you could eat it, ferment it, store it in resin for posterity and for future humans to recreate it. There aren't any limits to a purchase. So I agree, maybe we need ask the supremes of the supreme court if purchasing means different things. So if I purchase sex from a prostitute legally in Las Vegas, does that prostitute need to specifically state what activities I will own? Or if I go to Costco and buy a fried chicken, does Costco need to specifically state that the chicken is not just a rental but a final exchange between you and Costco, money for dead poultry. More relatable, a screw driver from home Depot, that thing will last a few uses, so do you still own it if home Depot goes down? Can you still rotate screws with it?
Software can be both a product and a service:
The issue preventing one practically enacting on software is that copyright defaults to preventing you redistributing it, and you need the source code to be able to modify (fully). Thankfully some games are free software/open source when you can act on your ownership.
So that should be "I purchased a game" when you got a detached product that is functional forever... unless the makers make a deal with Microsoft to fuck it up on the next illegally forced update or with Nvidia to change the next card such that it is unplayable.
And it should be "I purchased.....I subscribed to this online game" when you know that shit is not yours, so don't expect it to last.
That would at least be more honest.. from my perspective anyway. The games industry has done this for so long that this is the norm for generatations who grew up with consoles being online - this is "purchasing" to some as words have usages and not inate meaning.
It would be better if they just stopped doing that but you get more money that way.
"yes, you made a purchase. But what you purchased were tickets. Tickets to specific rides at a theme park. You did not buy the rides. You bought tickets for the rides. Those tickets are valid for your personal use. If you are not the one using them, they are not to be used." --Their argument in court probably.
You can resell Windows CD keys legally in the EU as the courts rejected the "only for you" part of the argument: invalidating that part of the EULA. I probably have the right to resell my Steam game tickets.
Based EU wringing fair behavior out of corporations (sometimes)
For the life of the trust. Could span generations.