| theRepublic said:
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." Any thoughts on who is right? My thought is that Gamasutra missed that point, and the digital sellers will need to support used sales. I could be wrong though. |
Heise (german tech-news) disagree with this interpretation:
Basically they argue, the judges have ruled, that Oracle (in this case) cannot forbid the resale of their software-download. But they didn't forbid entangling software with a account (like Steam or itunes) or with the hardware. That wasn't part of the ruling. A different case would be needed, to open up Steam.
And for MP3s and movies it is very clear: seems the european law has a specific definition of software: written in a computer-language that allows for loops and conditional jumps. As a programmer I agree with this definition. But that means, MP3 and videos are not covered by this decision. The article hopes for later rulings in this area.
