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Nevermore on 07 August 2012
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zarx said:
Nevermore said:
zero129 said:
Nevermore said:

Nice try, but in the end it's all just smoke and mirrors. All EU member states have adopted consumer protection laws that protect the consumers from this kind of bullsh*tery. It's illegal for a company to hide disastrous clauses in contracts, like "we will add an extra fee of 1000€" or "we will set fire to your hedges". Since the law does not expect the average consumer to read the terms of service, any information that is not presented clearly is considered as omission of information.

Heck, you can sue Steam right now for the "btw, you're just licensing our games"-BS. At no point is the word license mentioned in the entire buying process, leading the consumer to assume, as seen in this thread, that they're buying a product. The fact that it's just a license is clearly a failure "to identify the commercial intent of the commercial practice if not already apparent from the context." So this is just a lawsuit waiting to happen, tho it won't be the consumer who looses that one ;)

Btw, I'm not a lawyer, all this information can be read in this shiny pamphlet: http://ec.europa.eu/consumers/cons_int/safe_shop/fair_bus_pract/ucp_en.pdf

im going to see my lawyer tomorrow and explain to him what you just said. Im going to tell him how i brought over €2000 euros worth of games from steam under the impression i then owned said games. As like you said no where at all did it state i was only renting the games.

Hmm i wonder if it would work? xD.


Be carefull with your wording, there's probably a legal difference between a licence and a rental. My guess is that they're just licences and not rentals, since they don't have an expiration date and only expire if you violate their TOS or whether the particular Steam support staff member stepped on a Lego that day.

Well as is displayed when you sign up (and the agreement that is linked when you buy a game) it says:

"This Steam Subscriber Agreement ("Agreement") is a legal document that explains your rights and obligations as a Subscriber. Please read it carefully.

1. REGISTRATION AND ACTIVATION.

Steam is an online service ("Steam") offered by Valve Corporation ("Valve").

You become a subscriber of Steam ("Subscriber") by installing the Steam client software and completing the Steam registration. Additionally, as a Subscriber you may obtain access to certain services, software and content ("Subscriptions") available to Subscribers. Conclusion of this contract between Valve and you takes place as soon as you access the Steam service after accepting this Agreement."

"Each Subscription allows you access to certain services, software and other content under the terms of each such Subscription and this Agreement. Additional terms provided with each such Subscription ("Subscription Terms") may apply to the use of a given Subscription, and are incorporated into this Agreement."

 

So yes you are subscribing to the games, not owning or renting it. Of course as I said earlier all software you buy is technically a license anyway. You are still intitled to have access to what you payed for however so they still can't take away access without "good reason" and you can still sue them etc if you think they have unreasonably taken away access to your games, just like you could if you brought the games retail.

It's shitty but that is how it is, all content with DRM is basically the same as shown by the activivation limits in many games, and the EA fiasco.


Again, this is only information that is visible within the TOS, which the law considers as omission of information if the information isn't clearly visible somewhere else or deductible by context. The fact that appearantly games are considered a substriction is never visible elsewhere, nor deductible by context. With all those shiny green buttons that say 'Buy' you'd never guess that they actually mean 'Subscribe', which is very misleading and also illegal according to consumer protection laws. 

The moment when Valve pulls anything funny, they can expect a big fat lawsuit exploding in their faces.