Comment on GOG reportedly suffering from staff turnover and poor management: “Current business model is likely running out of steam”

• woelkchen@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  With GOG I get an actual license key & terms that state my ownership.

  No, the intellectual property is not transferred to you. You have no clue how copyright works.

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  • Hawke@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    For most people that is a distinction without a difference.

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    • woelkchen@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      For most people that is a distinction without a difference.

      So what’s the difference to making a backup of my Steam folder? The games I play have no DRM either.

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      • Hawke@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        Nothing at all. Most people are not creating derivative works.

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    • Nibodhika@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Yes, but the same is also true for Steam, so it’s a moot point.

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  • JackbyDev@programming.dev ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    I totally understand your point, but when people talk about “you own nothing” they don’t really mean you “own” the content on physical media, they mean it doesn’t have DRM. You’re technically correct, but your pedantry is making you miss the forest for the trees, basically.

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    • woelkchen@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      but your pedantry is making you miss the forest for the trees, basically.

      No. People here claim, that just because GOG cannot remote wipe your drive, people buying off GOG have a perpetual right to the games they’ve bought. But they don’t because that’s not how copyright works. If a game’s license is revoked, to keep playing the game is copyright violation.

      Not only do so many people not grasp basic concepts of copyright, they claim Valve could take away all downloaded games. No, Valve cannot remote wipe my drive either. I can back up my Steam folder. Many games on Steam don’t have DRM at all. It’s opt-in and the actual Steam documentation outright says not to rely on Steam DRM because “it is easily removed by a motivated attacker.” If games rely on crap like Denuvo, 3rd party launchers, or invasive anti-cheat, the publishers are required to clearly state so on the store page in one of those orange boxes. Users can make an informed decision on a per-game basis even with Steam. And those games that ship crap like Denuvo aren’t on GOG in the first place.

      So in the end GOG is a store that stretches the truth about game ownership in their marketing and despite all their Witcher and Cyberpunk money, they don’t care about users of platforms competing against Windows at all.

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      • JackbyDev@programming.dev ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        People here claim, that just because GOG cannot remote wipe your drive, people buying off GOG have a perpetual right to the games they’ve bought.

        I think it’s pretty clear from context that they mean they have the ability to perpetually play the games because of the lack of DRM, not the right.

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    • Nibodhika@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      But the same is also true for Steam, so it’s a moot point.

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      • JackbyDev@programming.dev ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        Nobody is saying otherwise.

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• Nibodhika@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  No you don’t. You get the same license as you do on Steam, here’s the license btw …gog.com/…/16034990432541-GOG-User-Agreement-effe… :

  We give you and other GOG users the personal right (known legally as a ‘license’) to use GOG services and to download, access and/or stream (depending on the content) and use GOG content. This license is for your personal use. We can stop or suspend this license in some situations, which are explained later on.

  Which is very similar to Steam. In both cases you can keep the files you’ve downloaded on your machine, and on most cases you can copy those files to a different machine and keep playing it. GOG has better marketing on this regard, but they’re both very similar, neither enforces DRM nor forbids it entirely, although GOG does tend to be a bit stricter (but they still allow it) whereas steam is a bit looser but knowingly implemented a weak DRM and let’s you know in the game page if the game has any stronger form of DRM.

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  • dbat@mastodon.gamedev.place ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    @Nibodhika @Evil_Shrubbery Stop Killing Games opened my eyes to the software "ownership" situation. In USA, apparently, noone ever owns any software. It's always licenced. Even if on physical media. Quite bizarre.

    In rest of world it varies but alao sucks.

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    • Nibodhika@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Yup, GOG just has good marketing department and lots of people fall for the DRM-free (but not really) games you own (but not really) campaign.

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      • obsurveyor@mastodon.gamedev.place ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        @Nibodhika @dbat Steam did the exact same thing when it was new when they would say "If Steam ever shuts down, we'll give you perpetual licenses to the games in your game library." Probably around the same time in their existence as GOG hyping DRM-free.

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      • dbat@mastodon.gamedev.place ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        @Nibodhika It's freaking evil, but in their defence, it's more America's evil than any one business. They have set about systematically reducing freedom for decades.

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