Second hand game sales are legal!!!

Check this article :http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/onepercent/2012/07/eu-court-rules-used-software-c.html

Surprised this isn't in a news article on the site here yet! Its huge for us gamers!

Or here it is copied to here:

Fancy a second-hand copy of Angry Birds? You could be in luck, as the Court of Justice of the European Union has ruled that software authorscannot prevent customers from reselling their products.

Software companies have long insisted that unlike books, DVDs or cars, computer programs cannot be resold because customers do no actually own them. Instead, you merely own a licence to use the software as governed by the End User License Agreement (EULA) - that big wall of text you normally click past without reading during the install process.

Most EULA's forbid resale of the licence, but the court's ruling, made in a case against software company Oracle, now says otherwise - "even if the licence agreement prohibits a further transfer, the rightholder can no longer oppose the resale of that copy."

Of course, one vital difference between software and books, DVDs or cars is that its incredibly easy to create an exact duplicate of every program on your hard drive, so what is to stop you copy-pasting all the way to the bank? Thankfully the court has thought of that as well - "an original acquirer... must make the copy downloaded onto his own computer unusable at the time of resale."

You don't even have to transfer the program from your computer to the buyer's, however, as the ruling says that once the licence is sold, the new owner can simply download a copy from the software vendor's website.

It remains to be seen what impact this ruling has, as there are currently no mechanisms in place for transferring software licenses on platforms such as the App Store or Google Play. Steam, one of the largest video game distribution services, does currently allow users to "gift" games to one another, so it might be easy enough to add a "sell" feature alongside.

Software firms are unlikely to take the ruling lying down though, as there is no reason for consumers to purchase new software instead of used - unlike physical goods, digital data isn't subject to wear and tear.

SUCK ON THIS EA:twisted:

I think they already knew that though, they weren't making it completely illegal to sell pre-owned games.

just charging us if we want to play online still.

Good, I'm glad.

I still can't see wy people would be OK with used movies but not used games.

I think they already knew that though, they weren't making it completely illegal to sell pre-owned games.

just charging us if we want to play online still.

PcGamingRig

Thats true but the most important thing about this is that it establishes a legal precedent for anything that may happen in the future.

So buying somebody's used game at a car boot sale would have been illegal? If you paid for it, it becomes your property. As long as your not taking liberties with the actual work, what you do with your own copy is nobody's business but yours, surely...

Remember that this only affects those in Europe. Companies can still restrict used game or software sales in the US.

[QUOTE="PcGamingRig"]

I think they already knew that though, they weren't making it completely illegal to sell pre-owned games.

just charging us if we want to play online still.

deadpeasant

Thats true but the most important thing about this is that it establishes a legal precedent for anything that may happen in the future.

Of course, one vital difference between software and books, DVDs or cars is that its incredibly easy to create an exact duplicate of every program on your hard drive, so what is to stop you copy-pasting all the way to the bank? Thankfully the court has thought of that as well - "an original acquirer... must make the copy downloaded onto his own computer unusable at the time of resale."deadpeasant

[QUOTE="deadpeasant"]Of course, one vital difference between software and books, DVDs or cars is that its incredibly easy to create an exact duplicate of every program on your hard drive, so what is to stop you copy-pasting all the way to the bank? Thankfully the court has thought of that as well - "an original acquirer... must make the copy downloaded onto his own computer unusable at the time of resale."Zeviander