Valve Flagrantly Violates Sherman Antitrust Act

[ColdFront]

Originally Posted by CaptainHaplo

You stated that the game was removed from people's libraries. I stated that while the game may have been unavailable for a time (I don't know if it was or wasn't) - it has resurfaced on Steam as a playable game - minus multiplayer. Thus I used the term OUTAGE. I did not claim that there was not some "outrage" - I simply didn't feel it necessary. Rather I took your claim of the game being "gone" and demonstrated it to be less that completely factual.

Nice backpedaling.

Good thing you are not a lawyer. Intellectual Property Law applies to software (aka - copyright) and makes the Terms of Service for usage a legally enforceable contract. Using software in ways not allowed under the Terms of Service can result in a number of legal remedies being pursued. Anything from a "cease and desist" order to fines and even imprisonment can be the results.

WRONG. TOS are contracts and are valid only insofar as they do not violate law.

They have an obligation to live up to their side of the contract. They did so. Their reputation is theirs to lift or destroy as they see fit - whether you approve or not. Unless you own a controlling interest in the company, which seems rather unlikely.

BTW, Valve is private owned, no stock.

Again, the game is available - just without multiplayer. Steam has no ethical, moral or business obligation to spend its resources on a game going forward that won't make them a profit. They DO have the obligation to spend their capital wisely so that the shareholders and investors make money. That's why its a BUSINESS. To claim that the players had "done no wrong" is a falsehood - they had gone outside the intended use of the software by trying or successfully making it play/work in a way that did not conform to the ToS - namely using the Square Enix servers. Doing that is no different than "cracking" an exe to get around DRM.

By your definition, Valve is merely a distributor of this game and not involved with its DRM, therefore they have no right to touch the game.

You seriously need to understand what coercion is. Go read and then explain where Valve has used force or threats to make people sign up with them.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/coercion

The coercion is "[self-censored] us or be locked out of the vast majority of PC gaming".

Microsoft has a roughly 90% share in the desktop market - yet they are not a monopoly. The NFL has a 100% market share on professional football in the US, but they are not violating anti-trust laws. The NBA, PGA, NHL all are the same. Market share is not the ONLY measure of a monopoly. Steam is not a monopoly because they do not directly interfere with, threaten or use force to destroy their rivals. Many other game services exist and are very viable. Something that a monopoly would never allow....

Of those, all but Microsoft have official sanction. And yes, Microsoft is a monopoly.

Terms of service are a legally enforceable contract. Considering your having to reach into the bag of consistent namecalling - I would wager that your the angsty one.... Add in your vehement and misplaced attacks on Steam - pretty much locks it in.

There you go again. TOS are a contract, and are only valid insofar as they do not violate law.

Your new here, so let me help you in learning something. Steam doesn't get a pass on this forum. For a very long time (2010 period) many of us were anti-steam. Much of the actions they and other services took (like stealing pc specs) without permission were significantly and hotly debated.

I'll believe they were anti-Steam when I see it.

Careful - you are repeating yourself. I have given example of why your claim regarding Steam is false. Rebut it if you can, or break out your "in case of a lack of good argument, launch personal attacks" emergency manual. The choice is yours.

You damn just love to psychologically project yourself, don't you? Goback2Stormfront.