Not the best way to phrase the question - but I agree, yes Steam is operates illegally The question isn't about illegal downloading! It's about whether Steam operates legally in relation to consumer rights By linking the product to your Steam account and making it impossible to unassign the product key they prevent resale of products. When someone buys the game in a shop there is nothing clearly explaining to the consumer what Steam is and how it works. It hoists itself on their PC and causes endless problems for ebayers who don not realise how Steam operates. If you bought a car from Honda would it be legal if they could disable the vehicle if it was sold second hand? No. Would if be legal if they claimed that overnight the rules of buying cars changed and the smallprint said that you were not buying a car, only 'the license to drive the car'? No. Steam is dressed up as a consumer service, that really exists to combat piracy, and goes on to cheat the consumer and force a poor service upon them that is poorly explained. I dread to think how many Christmas' it has ruined for families with average PC literacy. The willingness of Valve and software publishers to bully and rob consumers is an incredible incentive for software piracy. I have 0% sympathy with games publishers who use Steam and makelife difficult for those who buy legitimate software.
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