Every piece of software is the same.
Comment on Sony Reminds PS Users They Don't Own Digital Games
Templa@beehaw.org 2 months ago
Isn’t Steam the same?
BorgDrone@feddit.nl 2 months ago
TehPers@beehaw.org 2 months ago
This. Software is only ever licensed to you, never given.
What’s important isn’t that it’s licensed (paid software has to be because it’s trivially reproducible), but what the terms of the license state. I’ve read game EULAs that, to my surprise, allowed you to transfer your license once to somebody else (along with instructions on how to do it). I’ve also read shitty EULAs, which is the vast majority of them.
The biggest scam is when licenses can be unilaterally changed, which is sadly most of them.
From a game preservation standpoint, the license should be nonrevocable, perpetual, and the game should be DRM-free. Using Steam games as an example, Steam is a DRM, but many games can be played without Steam by simply deleting the Steam API library from the game directory. Those would be playable regardless of whether Steam even exists anymore.
Linearity@piefed.zip 2 months ago
Indeed your Steam account is not transferable so when you die your games die with you.
The reason Steam gets away with it (for now) though is they’re unusually chill about everything. Give someone your account? They don’t care. Pirate their games? Don’t care. Make a Steam app mod that literally automated the piracy process and uses Steam’s own servers to get the game files? Cool. Pirates are also using Steam’s servers to play pirated games online (through spacewars, easily detectable)? More power to you. And in the midst of all this they introduce the family feature where people can share their games with others in the family.
But I am no Steam shill and the license has the final say. So always BUY your games (from marketplaces like GOG) when possible.
Chozo@fedia.io 2 months ago
Pretty sure GOG has similar terms, too. The difference is that they're effectively unenforceable with the lack of DRM. But the "you're only buying a licence to use the software" verbiage is pretty universal, and old at this point. In fact, I'm pretty sure I've got NES games somewhere with nearly identical phrasing in their manuals.