Valve Wins Court Case, Digital Resale Of Games Has Been Closed.

The Joker

The Joker

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Valve has won a landmark case in Germany, setting the precedent for the 1st sale doctrine not to apply to digital games. In plain English, this has made digital resale of games impossible.

As a brief refresher, Verbraucherzentrale Bundesverband, which translates to Federation of German Consumer Organisations, and is known as VZBZ for short, brought the issue to Valve. VZBZ is a nongovernment, nonprofit umbrella association, that represents Germany’s different consumer rights organizations.

VZBZ made the case that Valve has to comply with a European Union decision from 2012 that states that companies cannot stop consumers from reselling digital product. That case involved Oracle products, and the decision then was that consumers could resell Oracle license keys to each other, as long as the seller was no longer using the key.

However, the new court decision seems to have made Steam the exception, as the jury believes the ruling does not apply for the digital storefront.

It’s not clear at the moment what this decision means for comparable storefronts like iTunes, but if the court swung the other way, it would have dramatically changed the way Steam worked. Valve would have to incorporate a system for their users to sell their games to each other. Beyond that, there is no telling how it could have affected the nature of Steam sales, as well as the terms between Valve, their developers, and their users.

I am sure many Steam owners will be fine with this arrangement. Whether the change could have been better for consumers, or Steam or the industry in general, we will not get the chance to find out.
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http://www.gameranx.com/updates/id/...-for-digital-resale-of-games-has-been-closed/

I am not quite sure how I feel about it...I'll think about it and form my own opinion later lol
 
brendanvb said:
Yet more evidence that in the digital era we will never truly own anything we buy.
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The way I see it, We buy tons of stuff during steam sales, so I think in a way it balances itself out.
Valve is in the business of selling games and unfortunately they can't tell the developers to do.
 
Funny enough I just remembered the 14% Digital tax coming into effect in April...Meh now I really don't know how I feel about this.
 
brendanvb said:
Yet more evidence that in the digital era we will never truly own anything we buy.
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We've always paid for licenses, the physical media was just for awe, don't see why it should change. I believe that software is bought for use and developer support - reselling is for personal benefit and will to a degree indicate that the full value was not obtained from the product. I don't mind this being implicated in physical belongings - but digital needs these limitations.
 
Stunt said:
We've always paid for licenses, the physical media was just for awe, don't see why it should change. I believe that software is bought for use and developer support - reselling is for personal benefit and will to a degree indicate that the full value was not obtained from the product. I don't mind this being implicated in physical belongings - but digital needs these limitations.
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I understand what you're saying but if you buy a fridge you can resell it if you don't want it anymore. I don't see why we shouldn't be allowed to sell our games if we paid for them. The people buying our second hand games were not going to pay full retail price anyway.
 
brendanvb said:
I understand what you're saying but if you buy a fridge you can resell it if you don't want it anymore. I don't see why we shouldn't be allowed to sell our games if we paid for them. The people buying our second hand games were not going to pay full retail price anyway.
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True but when you buy a fridge they don't come in once a month to patch the fridge. Plus in steam's case the PC is open to modification and disabling security, so what happens when some guy buys a game, mods it the next day and then through some reworking continues to play the game without the right to own the game. At least when you sell a fridge you can't keep using it but PC games is open to people selling the game and still using it through a crack. Maybe one day steam can fully secure the process with reselling digital rights but at this stage that right is still linked to you when you install software.
But that's just my view.
 
brendanvb said:
I understand what you're saying but if you buy a fridge you can resell it if you don't want it anymore. I don't see why we shouldn't be allowed to sell our games if we paid for them. The people buying our second hand games were not going to pay full retail price anyway.
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Fridges aren't digital.
 
Ike_009 said:
True but when you buy a fridge they don't come in once a month to patch the fridge. Plus in steam's case the PC is open to modification and disabling security, so what happens when some guy buys a game, mods it the next day and then through some reworking continues to play the game without the right to own the game. At least when you sell a fridge you can't keep using it but PC games is open to people selling the game and still using it through a crack. Maybe one day steam can fully secure the process with reselling digital rights but at this stage that right is still linked to you when you install software.
But that's just my view.
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Stunt said:
Fridges aren't digital.
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Ok the fridge was a bad example. I understand the points you guys make, it really does make sense. I just hate paying money for things that do not essentially become "mine" :p.
 
Just another reason I'm glad I don't go that route. If I had to buy games, I want to own them, not rent them from the mega corporation thanks.
 
Mephisto_Helix said:
Just another reason I'm glad I don't go that route. If I had to buy games, I want to own them, not rent them from the mega corporation thanks.
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Yeah which is why I buy most games on discs. But ultimately it will all become digital so unfortunately it seems this is a reality we will one day have to accept.
 
I reject your reality!

pirate-flag_21053085.jpg
 
brendanvb said:
I understand what you're saying but if you buy a fridge you can resell it if you don't want it anymore. I don't see why we shouldn't be allowed to sell our games if we paid for them. The people buying our second hand games were not going to pay full retail price anyway.
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Because you never own the game in the 1st place digital or retail disk. Actually reading the EULA's will point this out. Same goes for any software.

What you are in fact buying is a licence to use said software as the licence prescribe. In Valves case the Use does not include transfer rights.

Mephisto_Helix said:
Just another reason I'm glad I don't go that route. If I had to buy games, I want to own them, not rent them from the mega corporation thanks.
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Erm, maybe you should read the licence again. You do not own the game... ever, you just bought the rights to use it.
 
brendanvb said:
Well I guess I learnt something new today then. Why are 2nd hand sales only becoming an issue now?
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Its not new, there is court cases about it dating back as far as I can remember. The main issue I guess comes up with how Europe and US see IP rights in regard to software.

As for the Valve case Steam was using the lack to transferability to organize sales with publishers, I was hoping Valve would win this case as it would have killed sales as we knew it if they did not.
 
Eugene said:
It's always been an issue. Publishers have actually been trying to prevent it for years.
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Ja publishers have been wanting the second hand market gone for like forever.Go back to last year when Microsoft had to do there 180 on the check in system consumers have the right to voice there disgust at this.Lets not just bend over and take it if you don't like it speak up.
 
AlphaJohn said:
Because you never own the game in the 1st place digital or retail disk. Actually reading the EULA's will point this out. Same goes for any software.

What you are in fact buying is a licence to use said software as the licence prescribe. In Valves case the Use does not include transfer rights.



Erm, maybe you should read the licence again. You do not own the game... ever, you just bought the rights to use it.
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^This
Digital rights are less like fridges and closer to Tattoos.
 
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