Adinnieken said:
You don't relinquish your rights when you purchase digital content. |
I don't know much about the legal side of things, but I consider being able to sell on any product I purchase a fundamental right of ownership.
Adinnieken said:
You don't relinquish your rights when you purchase digital content. |
I don't know much about the legal side of things, but I consider being able to sell on any product I purchase a fundamental right of ownership.
The way I see it, ownership rights are irrelevant: the used game market is basically a RENTAL system pared down to the bare bones: Most rental services involve regular payments, but this one only involves two. The gamer pays the rent to infinity up front, and then trades in for residual value (video games usually depreciate quickly.) Ownership rights are not an issue, at least not in my mind, and probably not in the minds of most gamers.
Ideally, I'd like to see a mixed system. You can buy a game, of course, but with renting added on as a pay-service: if you subscribe to a console's pay-service (PS+ or XBox Live) you can rent one title at a time in one week increments. If you like it, you can buy it to get ownership rights and play it while renting another title. If you're a power-gamer, you can finish it by the end of the week, or renew the rental at the end. If it's not your thing, rent a different title next week.
Not complicated, not oppressive. Just providing a service people want.
Purple said:
I don't know much about the legal side of things, but I consider being able to sell on any product I purchase a fundamental right of ownership. |
I wasn't suggesting that you should consider otherwise.
In fact, EU courts even agree with your position.
Other than the courts themselves, Microsoft is in the best position to establish how those processes should work. They have the financial ability, they have the retail partner relationships, and I'm pretty sure they aren't lacking in consumer input.
There is no law that says a copyright holder that uses DRM must facilitate your rights to sell or lend a licensed piece of content. However, judges have interpreted that you still have the rights assigned to you under the first sale doctrine. That is, the rights of the copyright holder cease in regards to fair use and secondary sales after the first sale.
For its part, it sounds like Microsoft is facilitating this. It will allow people to lend games, as well as "give" them away. Likewise, it appears it is working on the means to facilitate trade-ins with certain retailers.
I'm personally not someone who trades in games. Nor do I routinely buy traded in games. So I don't have a big stake in whether or not that happens. Those who do should let Microsoft know what they expect or want.
I buy PSN and XBLA titles since there is no other option to buy them and they are $15 or less.
On Steam it's closer towards $5 per game, max $20.
But I'm not willing to give up ownership for the titles I really like. I mainly play on consoles nowadays since I can keep the games on my shelf for whenever I want to play them with no restrictions. I've also rebought PSN titles on disc when that option became available.
So got nothing to trade for complete loss of ownership rights.
Most games I rather buy with the option to trade in if it doesn't turn out, instead of renting them indefinitely at a cheaper price. The ones I'm not really interested in can pleasantly surprise me through ps+ or a Steam sale. Paying full price for a digital copy, never have, never will.