Perfectly legal to resell downloaded games EU Court rules.. (1 Viewer)

[dutchman]

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.

More details here: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2...nnot-stop-you-reselling-your-downloaded-games

 

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[Nick]

How do they prove its been removed off the first machine though?

 

[Tad]

How do you even resell them? Is it just the licence that allows you to own the game you sell or what? :/

 

[dutchman]

I presume it's the licence key which is sold?

 

[Tad]

I presume it's the licence key which is sold?

It's the only thing I can think of too.

 

[Covstu]

Interesting stuff! That could really affect the gaming Market! What about music and films?

 

[dutchman]

Interesting stuff! That could really affect the gaming Market! What about music and films?

Some observers think the ruling applies to those as well:

It's up in the air for now. Someone will have to try it, wait for the lawsuit, and then take it from there.

It's also been suggested that software companies will now employ a workaround such as selling time-limited licences only.

 

[Tad]

If the games weren't so expensive to start with the second hand market wouldn't be as strong as it is. The big argument is that new games don't sell well because people wait for it to hit the shelf at a secondhand price. Publishers/game Devs don't like this as they don't see any of the profits. If they we're willing to cheapen games to 30 from 40 let's say, I'm willing to bet that people will be more willing to spend it for a new copy instead of a second hand one. One company I know of has done this as a test and it's worked out great for them. One of the guys there was telling me there going to keep doing this as it works much better for them overall.

 

[Covstu]

Personally I only buy games occasionally and use love film for most of them, play em and send it back

 

[Sawyer]

There's a website sometimes I use and all they do is give you a code to paste into steam and it downloads the game, you become the owner. However, if I sold Left 4 Dead via steam and gave you my license key, it would tell you , you are not the owner and to log in with my details, which you would not know, steam would have to implement a sell feature (which I'm sure they'll take a cut from) then they would transfer it across. That's my guess. You get 5 log ins I
For example with fm2012, (you can download the game on 5 different machines via your steam account. But I'm guessing if I was logged in as someone else and used my license it would tell me it is owned by someone else, and not allow you to do so.

Guess we are going to have to wait for a steam update!