this post was submitted on 02 Jun 2024
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When you go into a store and buy something, you tend to leave with a physical product. Not so with Steam.
You mention a "library" of games...when you take something out of the library, it's not yours.
How do you normally access your games? Through the Steam platform, or by running executables directly from your machine (without needing an internet connection)? Because if you usually use the Steam platform, that was the first hint that you don't "own" the games. And if you need an internet connection, that was the second hint.
Another big hint is, as you said, the game is tied to your account. Not your person. Your account is explicitly non-transferable (e.g., in death). As well, they can remove your access to your account for not being in line with the T&C.
You buy a drill from a store, then you use the drill to break someone's lock. But you still own the drill -- neither Home Depot nor Ryobi has a legal right to take that drill away from you, even if you get caught.
Again, I'm not defending Steam here. This is why I recommend people look into DRM-free services like GOG if you actually care about "owning" your games.
Otherwise, good luck with your class-action lawsuit against Steam. It's not like I have an empty Steam library, so if a class-action actually won, I'd benefit from that too. I just don't think it'll ever happen, thanks to the T&C which most people seem to generally know and accept.
What the fuck are you on about, when I take something out of my personal library at home it absolutely belongs to me.
You obviously have no idea what you're talking about. DRM is copy and piracy protection and was never a way to lease a game instead of buying. DRM free means you can copy it to anyones PC and will work fine.
Lol...your personal library at home is composed of physical objects that you bought and assembled into what you call a library. A better word might be a "collection" rather than a library, but we're getting into semantics here.
You seem to be getting very emotional about this. Your anger should really be directed towards Steam, or maybe yourself for not reading the T&C.
DRM is used for copy and piracy protection, yes, but it encompasses many kinds of digital rights, including access. Steam itself is DRM -- they manage the rights of which account holders can access which digital games. Even with Steam's Offline mode (which not all games support), you can run into situations where you can't play your game offline because of update issues.
Give the Steam T&C a skim, and find out whether you own your games forever. And if I'm wrong and you find something in the T&C that invalidates what I've said, then I'd be happy to see it.
Digital content doesn't fall under the same rules as physical items, for better or for worse.
You seem to be missing my point, it is very clear what Valve thinks about this. It's literally the article above? And I get their point, but I'm arguing they don't have a legal leg to stand on.
In the EU there is legal precedent to give access to every account of a deceased person to their next of kin. T&C doesn't mean shit when it goes against consumer protection or civil laws.
When the T&C say you have to give your kidney to Gabe Newell it won't hold up in court.