Re: EA's "Project 10 Dollars"

The alMIGHTY N <natlee75@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
IF console game licenses were written like the licensing agreement on
movie/concert tickets, or required you to agree to a EULA like PC games,
then you would be mostly right.

No, I'm 100% correct. I didn't say that you would be exactly like a
pirate. I said that you are doing one thing similar to pirates, which
is to allow people to play a game without having paid an appropriate
royalty/licensing fee to the creator. Second hand sales are "lost
sales" much like pirated copies are "lost sales" - and probably to the
same degree as there are many people who would never purchase a game
new and wouldn't bother playing it two years down the line when the
price is $20.

If I buy a game, play the game, then lend the game to you, you're playing
my copy - which was paid for already (by me) - of the game.

If you try to make the argument of "1 person pays, but 2 people get to
play, resulting in 1 lost sale" then how do you justify DVDs, which are
often bought by one person, yet viewed by many at the same time? Does this
mean that countless peoples' "movie night" now results in countless lost
sales? Does this mean then that DVDs should be sold on a per-eyeball
basis?

Careful here, this is same the logic that led to the short-lived DIVX format.

Now based on how things seem to be set up right now in the traditional
computer software world, EA is welcome to change the licensing on their
games such that the user has to agree to an EULA which would forbid the
transfer of this license to another person - but that then has a lot of
problems since many users of console games are not 18 years old, and
therefore unable to enter into a binding contract. Even the EULA itself
is on shakey ground if it tries to go against ones legally given rights
and powers under the law.

That entirely depends on how the court interprets the transaction by
which a consumer legally obtained a copy of the software. The First
Sale Doctrine applies only to the sale of a product, and the software
industry has tried to get around that with the whole "granting
licenses not selling products" thing, which some states have agreed
with and some states have not.

Yup, which is where things get ridiculously complicated. I notice there
were a large number of cases that specifcially targeted California (where
I live). My guess is eventually someone will buy a copy of something off
eBay where the seller and buyer are in different states, and therefore
under different laws, which will conflict and/or contradict each other.

All of which just points out just how out of date copyright law is, and
despite numerous little patches and court precedents, is really in need of
an overhaul - which I'm sure the corporations would LOVE to provide.

A centralized database isn't required, at least not for selling used
products. I'm sure that people giving away their games, books and CDs
to friends and family aren't really the focus of the game industry's
wrath.

I think that's only the case because they aren't the big easy target.
Second hand stores, like Gamestop or used book/CD/DVD stores, are a nice
big easy target because there aren't that many of them, compared to the
1000s of individuals calling themselves "Hal0RoxGuy73" on eBay,
Craigslist, Goozex, or countless folks selling games at a garage sale or
flea market.

I seem to recall during the early 90s when you had Garth Brooks speaking
out against used CD sales, there was some talk about the music industry
trying to pass laws that would have made it entirely illegal to sell or
lend a used CD, no matter if you were a national store, a local store, a
panw shop, some guy at a flea market, or just a couple of school kids
swapping discs on the playground.

The public's reaction to this was rather quick and brutal. Sales of new
CDs fell like a stone, as people started buying used discs out of
protest. After that, the music industry shut up about the whole second
hand market stuff.

Therefore, all we have to do is make sure that the courts consider things
like computer software - even if it has no physical box format (eg. DLC) -
is analogous to a book, and everything will be good for the consumer...or
at least, not as sucky.

--
It's not broken. It's...advanced.

--
It's not broken. It's...advanced.
.

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