New EU laws effect EA, Origin and further SWTOR?

New European Union laws mean that Europeans can sell their digitally downloaded games to other people, no matter what, even the UELA can't prohibit it and no company is allowed to refuse it, it's basically a right of the user/customer.

Could this eventually mean that games like SWTOR, Mass Effect, etc... can also be resold by their owners?

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology...?newsfeed=true

its not just swtor and EA, think of every mmo that doesnt allow for the resale of accounts, games etc. Technically according that that you would have to delete the whole program/game from your end before selling but in the case of mmos that would also mean deletion of all things belonging to you ie chars.

But dont think for one second this will end here, a few things will happen, companys will go ott to try and stop it from there end, consumers will throw other cases in other countrys and use this as a standpoint. this wont end here.

When laws get too restrictive concerning businesses, rather than work with the laws businesses just tend to pull out of the country all together.

I wouldn't be suprised to see some games not be sold in the EU over this.

I like consumer protection laws and all but if it means not having the product sold in my country because of the law well then to hell with it!

I already feel sorry for all those aussies and thier strict internet censorship laws.

That may be true in certain countries, but an entire continent is a whole other matter, not releasing games in the EU is an entire third of your prospective audience.

It's like trading in your old games when you're done with them.

I'm sure lots of game companies are now quite annoyed, but they make enough money so I'm not too bothered about them losing some of it.

May not apply to SWTOR to any significant degree, as they say in the article there are unresolved questions relating to the difference between buying software and a license. Reselling a game you have bought digitally may become legal but that is not necessarily the same as reselling an account, it seems more aimed at games that you can buy that don't have a sub attached.

Great point, but until we get the proper kagillion page fineprint I doubt we'll know the whole story.

I would say if this is the case and it really happens and is allowed. That said software would be just that the software and not the account nor the characters associated with the account.

There would be a purge of the account and a new account set up for the new owner. They would have the right to the original program as new a fresh install. Since the software can be downloaded free of charge from SWTOR, the only thing you are really selling is your key. (I would guard your keys closely otherwise someone might be calling Bioware and saying you sold it to them. This will bring a whole new legal matter if they eradicated your account for the new person.)

To avoid people stealing your account, you could transfer ownership of the account to a new email address whilst logged in as the owner. Just have the process require a reentry of the password and Bioware will not be liable at all for any damage as it would be the account owners fault for leaving his/her password exposed.

To be honest, I don't see a significant difference between used game sales and piracy.

The ruling is talking about Oracle, IIRC they make database software/server stuff. If you sell your copy, you are actually giving something up. If you still want to do database/server stuff, you still need another copy.

Games are, IMO, experiences. They are basically consumables that don't actually get used up when consumed. Once you've played through a game, that's it. You're done. You've consumed the experience. It holds no real value for you anymore. No utility.

I tend to think that *if* this legislation stands, and is applied to games, we're going to see more and more games, even single player ones, switch to some form of subscription/rental model. IMO since game's aren't utility but are consumed, IMO used game sales will eventually make actually selling games untenable.