EU Court rules you can resell Downloaded Games

[garyopa]

Also, validates pre-owned games sales.



The European Court of Justice has ruled that gamers are free to resell digital games/software and also says that the practice of selling pre-owned software is legitimate.

That's right, the Court of Justice of the European Union has ruled that you are allowed to resell your digital games and software, and publishers are legally unable to stop people from doing that.

According to them “such a transaction involves a transfer of the right of ownership of the copy.”

They also ruled that the sale of pre-owned software is a legitimate practice.

“Under that directive, the first sale in the EU of a copy of a computer program by the copyright holder or with his consent exhausts the right of distribution of that copy in the EU,” it added.

“A rightholder who has marketed a copy in the territory of a Member State of the EU thus loses the right to rely on his monopoly of exploitation in order to oppose the resale of that copy.”

[...]

“The principle of exhaustion of the distribution right applies not only where the copyright holder markets copies of his software on a material medium (CD-ROM or DVD) but also where he distributes them by means of downloads from his website,” the ruling continues.

“Where the copyright holder makes available to his customer a copy – tangible or intangible – and at the same time concludes, in return form payment of a fee, a licence agreement granting the customer the right to use that copy for an unlimited period, that rightholder sells the copy to the customer and thus exhausts his exclusive distribution right.

“Such a transaction involves a transfer of the right of ownership of the copy. Therefore, even if the licence agreement prohibits a further transfer, the rightholder can no longer oppose the resale of that copy.”

Apparently, this ruling comes as part of a dispute between Oracle and UsedSoft in the German courts.

So, there you go. Big stuff in here for people who live in Europe!

Check out the ruling in more detail in the links below!

NEWS SOURCE #1: EU rules publishers cannot stop you reselling your downloaded games (via) EuroGamer
NEWS SOURCE #2: European Court rules that pre-owned games are legal challenges DRM (via) MCV UK

Our thanks to 'Gauss' for this news item!

[DEDDOA]

Bloody hell, maybe all that 2012 stuff being the end of the world is true, the courts not siding with big business on somthing that can benefit all consumers. technically speaking this means that movies and music can be sold on as well as in digital format it's notjhing but software (mind you for DVD's and BD's the same is true). I have a feeling this rulling is going to come with a hell of a lot of caveats that mean it doesn't include entertainment software as that would blanket cover games movies and music. I'd like to think this a good thing but i'm to much of a skeptic to believe this will genuinely benefit consumers, or will do for long. I wonder how this will work if someone wants to sell somthing like their cerberus network, EA will likley claim it's on US servers so doesn't come under EU law.

[Diztructor]

id agree pre owned games (hard copy) but i dont agree with digital download, unless the court can find away of monitoring this.

i mean, i download a game to my 360/ps3 account, how am i to then transfer this to someone else for cash and ensure that i no longer have the digital copy.

this would mean that the game would need unlocking to work on another persons account which then will lead to what we can see now with hacked psn/xbox live games, people taking them and leaking them to the pirates on the internet.

[MadonnaProject]

Wow this is fantastic. They would be going nuts about this in the states. Does this mean steam will be changing the way they work?

[billysastard]

i mean, i downloa

look on your 360 under transfer licence, or on your 3ds under settings / transfer, your copy stops working when you transfer it to someone else.

[Nocuddle]

i mean, i download a game to my 360/ps3 account, how am i to then transfer this to someone else for cash and ensure that i no longer have the digital copy.

usb to transfer
press DELETE button to delete the file
prob solved for the whingers

[Diztructor]

look on your 360 under transfer licence, or on your 3ds under settings / transfer, your copy stops working when you transfer it to someone else.

wasnt aware because ive never had to use it, but thumbs up to MC then if this is something that consoles allready allow, how is it newsorthy, if courts say you can do it.... erm we already could.

its kinda suggesting that consoles arent allowing you to do so, then the courts are saying you now can, but the consoles are letting you already.

[billysastard]

wasnt aware because ive never had to use it, but thumbs up to MC then if this is something that consoles allready allow, how is it newsorthy, if courts say you can do it.... erm we already could.

its kinda suggesting that consoles arent allowing you to do so, then the courts are saying you now can, but the consoles are letting you already.

the problem is that its a pain in the arse and effectively only on those 2 can it be done at all but you cant trade it in at a store (or online) like you can with a physical copy, its been acceptable to bar resale on pc but because of greedy publishers forcing it onto console not only with dd but with dlc, paywalls etc on retail content this has come about and now its going to cause the biggest headache on the pc, their greed is hopefully coming back to bite them and thats why its quite big news.