New EU laws effect EA, Origin and further SWTOR?

This won't make much difference. Nothing has changed with the law, it's just that courts have ruled that once you buy online goods you own them the same as if they were physical, which is a good thing. It might even mean the end to crappy DRMs which only let you install games X amount of times as well.

In the end though I doubt much will change. For a start, who is going to trust buying a 2nd hand account/game? Theres no way to proove you are the new owner if the original owner tries to take it back. Unless it's though some officialy supported system, it's just to dodgy.

One reason EA owns everything in the game is to keep governments from taxing or seizing your virtual goods as income or assets. Don't take my word for it, there are many articles out there on the subject. Here's one Here's another..

Quote: Originally Posted by Shingara

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 you fight the EU you lose.

Much bigger than EA have discovered this.



It's basically a reaction to games companies frankly fraudlent attempts to make you "buy" a copy of a game yet only get so many specific uses. It's wrong, and it's good to see the EU doing something about it.

The thing is you can sign up to anything in a EULA, that doesn't however make it legal.

The law itself makes it legal (or not), so if there was an EULA saying you had agreed to give X company your first born child, just because you signed it doesn't mean you'd be legally bound to do so.

Interestingly one of the reasons EULA are so rarely challenged in courts (if ever) is that the companies themselves don't really want a binding ruling of what can or cannot be in a EULA or indeed how much they do or don't stand up.

in theory that was a good idea, but that seem poorly thought of for mmo and online only game.
Europe will probably have even less game available now, just a big grats ;p

Can you provide examples of a EULA not holding up in court?

Everything that goes against a law is illegal and easy to break.

Microsofts, in the EU, would be the biggest I'd imagine.

But it's just as much about companies not wanting to even test them as it is about them not standing up.

If I had to guess, I would say that BW's SWTOR service is carefully designed to be useless to someone who has transferred a digital copy of the game in a way that would not be legal under EULA terms that are in force in the US market.

Just because they're not allowed to prohibit people trading copies of the game doesn't mean they're legally obligated to provide the service to someone who has bought a 2nd-hand copy.

This is a Myth that has been perpetuated by big businesses in the gaming industry in order to scare consumers away from used game sales. The fact of the matter is, people have been selling used movies, used furniture, used cars, used BBQ's after using them once, etc. etc. for decades, and you dont need a subscription to sit on your couch or watch your dvd you bought from a pawn shop.

If games end up having the problem you describe, then it means their entertainment value has fallen over the years. I can watch a movie over and over, but it seems many games are less and less replayable these days. Developers might have to put more focus into replayability, oh my! But i am sick and tired of the game industry acting like a special snowflake in the world of capitalism, where they must be treated special and different from every other industry on Earth, including the rest of the entertainment industry.

For the record, EULA's are NOT legally enforceable in the United States. If the US were to pass a similar measure to this Euro one, the US would find disabling service to second hand users illegal most likely. Like having your couch explode if it ever gets resold (though that would be kind of funny.)