Steam wins in highest german court

[Schunken]

Hi!

With all this Discussion here about DRM and "own a software" I think its quite interesting.

Maybe some poeple know that german laws normally be customer-friendly (like 2 years warranty)

But a user was go to court and say: I buy the Software over steam and so I must be able to sell it again.

He go to county curt - lost
He go to higher court - lost
He go to german highest court (Bundesverfassungsgericht) - lost

The core was: It depend on the license that came with the software. If the licence forbid to sell the software (or your account) than it is so....


Andreas

[jwilliams]

Theres this page that appears when you go to install your game/software. Most of us just scroll down to the bottom and click agree. But does anyone ever read what rights we are giving up?

IT PAYS TO READ THE EULA

You didn't really read the EULA. How do I know? Because hardly anyone does. To prove that point, PC Pitstop included a clause in one of its own EULAs that promised anyone who read it, a "consideration" including money if they sent a note to an email address listed in the EULA. After four months and more than 3,000 downloads, one person finally wrote in. That person, by the way, got a check for $1,000 proving, at least for one person, that it really does pay to read EULAs. http://www.pcpitstop.com/spycheck/eula.asp
:o

I've noticed that after Ubisoft got sued for $5 million over Starforce, they have now added this to there EULA :-

THE MULTIMEDIA PRODUCT MAY BE PROTECTED BY DIGITAL RIGHTS MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE (ìDRM SOFTWAREî). IN SUCH CASE, THE USER HEREBY AGREES, ACKNOWLEDGES AND CONSENTS TO THE FOLLOWING REGARDING THE DRM SOFTWARE: (I) THAT THE INSTALLATION OF THE MULTIMEDIA PRODUCT WILL CAUSE THE DRM SOFTWARE TO BE INSTALLED ON THE USER'S COMPUTER; (II) THE DRM SOFTWARE MAY LIMIT THE NUMBER OF INSTALLATIONS OF THE MULTIMEDIA PRODUCT; (III) THE DRM SOFTWARE MAY INSTALL ON THE USER'S COMPUTER ADDITIONAL COMPONENTS REQUIRED FOR COPY PROTECTION; AND (IV) DURING THE INSTALLATION AND/OR THE FIRST LAUNCH, AN ONLINE CONNECTION MAY BE REQUIRED TO UNLOCK THE MULTIMEDIA PRODUCT THROUGH THE DRM SOFTWARE. IN NO EVENT SHALL UBISOFT BE LIABLE IN CONNECTION WITH THE COMPONENTS THAT MAY BE INSTALLED ON THE USER'S COMPUTER BY ANY DRM SOFTWARE. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE VISIT THE WEBSITE OF THE DRM SOFTWARE APPEARING DURING THE INSTALLATION OF THE GAME.:nope:

You could always try this :-

Kitty agrees

http://www.osnews.com/story/21010/Can_Your_Cat_Agree_to_an_EULA_
Anne Loucks made a little cardboard placque with a downward extension, put it over her keyboard, and by charmign her cat into walking over it, the placque pressed down on the space bar, agreeing to Adobe Reader's EULA. Her cat might not be a legal entity, but the fact of the matter is that she herself did not agree to the EULA, so technically, she shouldn't be covered by it. Right?:har:

[vedrand]

Hi Schunken, thanks for that information, can you please post a link to that news (auch deutsch geht ;) as I would be interested to read it. Couldn't find it myself.

[Schunken]

Hi, steht in der Gamestar 04/10 Seite 6

(printed in german game magazine "Gamestar" 04.10 page 6


Andreas

[Seafireliv]

That`s terrible, terrible news. Other companys will see this.

That means watch out for more games released with more drastic, draconian and terrible DRMs.

My gaming days are certainly coming to an end (except for the old non-drm ones).

I don`t care what the court says, I will not condone or accept such intrusive systems like Steam and 24\7 DRMs.

I feel sorry for the people who are now going to be chained and collared in the future for more and more expensive games they can only play when the company feels like letting them play and at the same time all but calling them criminals.

The law is an ass!

Terrible. Good thing there are better things in life, like walking in the country.

[Nordmann]

If the future of games is such, then the future of the companies making them is going to be very short indeed. Expect to see more bankruptcies over the coming years!