The EU has ruled that publishers cannot prevent you from selling and transferring right of ownership for your downloaded games.

You can read about the ruling here.

Despite the new ruling, we would like to remind everyone that GameBoomer's policy has not changed for trading and selling as we are a U.S. based website and we will abide by U.S. regulations.

Ana

Thanks, Ana!

Yes ....

Weird rule... What about iPad and Android apps and games? Have they singled out downloadable games from companies like Steam and the Adventure Shop? Games that require a serial number or key to work, or that come with a licence? And what about when it is DRM free? This rule must be about something very specific... It will be interesting to see how it develops in practice.

I think much remains to be seen on how this affects things and what companies are going to do with the ruling. It will be interesting to watch I am sure.

Ana

Interesting ruling. Thanks Ana.

what a wierd ruling i wouldnt even think of trading my downloaded games or even selling them for that matter. what on earth for. the disk verson that you purchased,those are the ones you can trade and sell on trading post, dianne

They must have considered a game like if it was simply data, does it matter whether it is on a DVD or if it is downloadable? You buy and sell the data, or the licence or right to use it, not the media it is on, I suppose. They must have have decided that from the point of view the law it is the same.

I can't see this rule having much impact on piracy, DVDs are already copied and downloadable on pirate websites. But I can see the problem of being tempted to sell a copy of your game, and well, keep a copy for yourself and the key to use it. And what would stop someone from selling a game many times?

Is this rule enforceable without complicated DRM stuff? But certainly the technology exists if they wish to enforce it and make sure that one key can only be operated on one device at any given time. I have such a software at this moment.

What will change I think is that now less copies of downloadable games will be bought from the original source or online shops like the Adventure Shop. We could soon be buying them used (as good as new) on eBay just like DVD versions.

This ruling might force Steam to allow transfer of games between accounts -- though Steam would probably charge you for the transfer. I don't see how it would work with Adventure Shop though, since Adventure Shop already limits your total installs.

Some Steam games (and some games that use other types of online authentication) do come on physical discs, and I think those should be legally resellable and playable by the new users. Otherwise they're just garbage to fill up the landfills.

As I understood ot from an off topic thread at the Bioware BSB forums, isn't the EU-ruling only about online accounts for online games e.g.World of Warcraft, Everquest, Star Wars: The Old Republic, The Secret World etc.

As I understand it also, the verdict of the EU court only is in regards to downloaded games e.g. games that are distributed digitally e.g. games you buy online and download online.

For me as a European citizen and a citizen in Denmark, which is part of the EU, the verdict of the EU court makes sense. The EU court has always upheld the free market in the biggest sense of the word (just info here). They could have seen as a hindrance for this if a Polish citizen couldn't trade what is seen as service ( I guess) to a French, German or Swedish citizen. (just info again)

For instance, Skyrim and Fallout needs a Steam account, an account that is registered as European. And I do believe that with this verdict in the EU court games like Skyrim and Fallout that requires a European Steam account might (will) be easier to trade.

If this happens I think the disc will dissappear gradually

Well hopefully not for EONS !!!!