http://www.lo-ping.org/2012/07/03/eu-court-ruling-allows-for-re-sale-of-used-games-by-end-users-you/

Had a game gathering dust on your shelf or taking space on your hard drive?  Living in fear of copyright rulings as of late that’s seemingly brought the hammer down on anyone and everyone?  Well quiver in fear no longer…at least if you live in Europe.

A recent ruling by the Court of Justice of the European Union has officially stated that “an author of software cannot oppose the resale of his ‘used’ licences allowing the use of his programs downloaded from the internet”.  In essence, it is now illegal in Europe for companies to try to stop you from selling your used digitally distributed software.

As for what qualifies as “used”?  Well, the ruling pretty much covers that as well:

The exclusive right of distribution of a copy of a computer program covered by such a licence is exhausted on its first sale.

And that is that. After a company has their first sale, they can’t do anything else about it.  This step is huge in the digital distribution sense. You are now officially allowed to sell your Steam / Origin / GoG games and whatever…if you live in Europe.

Not to ignore the elephant in the room, this obviously flies in the face of EULAs signed by end-users on their part agreeing that they would not take part in exactly this.  However, repeated precedent has shown that EULAs hold no water against actual laws.  For if you agree to an EULA that is contradictory to European law,  that point of the EULA is void.

On the other side, this brings up another argument that could be brought up: At the time of the agreement, it could be stated that the end-user agreed that the EULA was NOT contradictory to EU law.  It is NOW contradictory, but not when the contract was originally agreed upon. It could also be argued that the companies don’t have to support EU law because (for the most part) they’re not located within the EU. And as far as US is concerned, these companies are the complete opposite of MegaUpload.  Which makes the likelihood of extradition extraordinarily low.

On the OTHER other side, As long as these companies sell their product within the EU, they fall under EU commercial law.  Many will see this as a plain fact and simple to understand.  They’ll rationalize that if these companies  don’t want to deal with it, they would have to stop to selling to the EU completely.  [Protip: This likely won't happen.]

After all, here’s the magical phrase in the ruling that makes any and all EULA and EU law conflicts hopefully go the way of the dodo:

“Therefore, even if the licence agreement prohibits a further transfer, the rightholder can no longer oppose the resale of that copy. “

So expect some overhauls in a handful of Terms of Service agreements soon.  And hopefully some fancy new licence-transfer features as well.  Here, have another quote:

“Therefore the new acquirer of the user licence, such as a customer of UsedSoft, may, as a lawful acquirer of the corrected and updated copy of the computer program concerned, download that copy from the copyright holder’s website.”

This means Steam, GOG, Origin, et al., NEEDS to supply a way to transfer the ‘right to download the game’ to the proper party.  Whether this feature will include a nominal fee or not remains to be seen.  Don’t be surprised if it does; the potential revenue to be made there is astounding.  Here’s a hypothetical for you: Even if the fee is something around ten cents and it’s Euro counterpart, the volume alone could net Gabe and company quadrillions of dollars.  Gorillians even.

Whether we’ll see the US following suit remains to be seen.  Since most recent copyright defense actions have originated from the states, expect any adaptation to be at a snail’s pace at best.

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My take: assuming the article writer interpreted the ruling correctly (and the quotes make that seem very likely), way to go Europe! I hope American courts go this way, and sooner rather than later.

This is amazing news. One of my concerns with digital downloads will be gone when this takes effect. Glad I'm European.

This is...worrisome news. At first it sounds amazing for consumers, but I'm sure there are going to be serious reprimands from publishers who do not appreciate this ruling.

I'm not sure of the exact legal differences between holding a digital license and a physical copy, but one thing I do know is that digital licenses never wear down or expire. You could have the same copy sold 200 years from now if someone wanted it, and it'd be just like brand new. That kind of destroys the sales of digital goods, don't you think?

Does this apply to games only, or would someone be able to sell their iTunes music?

It's interesting because this isn't quite the same as file-sharing; it doesn't allow for copies to be made, since you are literally selling your right to have the file in the first place.

Still, a very progressive ruling. I am very curious about what the ultimate ramifications will be.

From the sounds of it it can be applied to any software that is bought. I don't know if music would be counted as software though. Are games considered software? But sounds like good news to me.

Exactly. This is not the first time! If you think about, molecules can be given away unchanged and are even after 200 years the same as new. Even if they are part of an chemical reaction, they can be refreshed by another chemical reaction. Take air and it's premium-quality molecule O2. This is high quality and can be "breathed". If used in your body, it will be applied to a chemical reaction, that creates CO2. But plants can refresh it back to O2. This refreshed O2 is as good as new!!!! And the ramification: air-selling-business is totally dead, nobody can sell air at a win. (I'm not talking about selling hot air, thank god this businness-model stays valid!)

Sweet. So in the next few years as it all transitions to digital, I can still use Ebay. :) c'mon US hurry up and match this law!

Like petitioning the legislatures to change the law? Because I don't see what other recourse they have, short of taking their digital ball and going home.

As for your other question, I can't say I agree. I think it unlikely that my VC copy of Zelda II is going to be sold and resold for the next 200 years, or even 10, in light of constant OS changes, but even if it were, so what? The publisher got its money. If it wants more money, it must either create a new product, or make a product which consumers will not want to resell.

Games are definitely considered software. I'm pretty sure MP3s et al. are as well.

In any case, if the U.S. comes down on the same side, I'll probably never need to buy a physical copy again, unless there's an amazing sale somewhere.

I dunno, I think games are definately software, but music and film are just files.

yah, well. they aren't allowed to stop you from selling your preowned digital games. but: what if they don't even have to stop you simply because it is not possible?
other fact: online pass. this is not software, it's.. a pass.