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EU Court Rules That Customers Can Resell Digital Content
Topic Started: Thursday Jul 5 2012, 03:17 PM (122 Views)
King Hiss
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The Court of Justice of the European Union has ruled that customers have the right to resell digitally purchased games.

While the ruling is not binding, it is designed to be used for reference when such matters arise in courts in EU countries, MCV reports.

The Court of Justice of the European Union said:

An author of software cannot oppose the resale of his 'used' licences allowing the use of his programs downloaded from the internet.

The exclusive right of distribution of a copy of a computer program covered by such a licence is exhausted on its first sale.

The principle of exhaustion of the distribution right applies not only where the copyright holder markets copies of his software on a material medium (CD-ROM or DVD) but also where he distributes them by means of downloads from his website.

Where the copyright holder makes available to his customer a copy - tangible or intangible - and at the same time concludes, in return form payment of a fee, a licence agreement granting the customer the right to use that copy for an unlimited period, that rightholder sells the copy to the customer and thus exhausts his exclusive distribution right.

Such a transaction involves a transfer of the right of ownership of the copy. Therefore, even if the licence agreement prohibits a further transfer, the rightholder can no longer oppose the resale of that copy.


Quote:
 
The likes of Steam and Origin "will have to facilitate" a digital pre-owned market following a new ruling by the Court of Justice of the European Union (ECJ).

That's according to Paul Sulyok, boss of London-based digital PC games retailer Green Man Gaming, who told Eurogamer that the ECJ ruling suggesting consumers have the right to resell downloadable games they've purchased will have significant implications for platform holders.

"I think some first acquirer somewhere is going to push this through, because it's the kind of thing the community does, and it's their right to," he said.

"There will be a first case against one of the platform holders. The result of that is a foregone conclusion. So they will have to facilitate that. This will shake up the digital distribution market. Long-term there are some important implications and this is very disruptive.

"Both Origin and Steam would have to facilitate some kind of method whereby a consumer could revoke the activation of that key and then pass a brand new key onto a third party."

Sulyok also said the ruling could deter digital retailers from offering sales promotions.

"The classic technique of deep discount, short time limited discounts, all of that will be slightly skewed now, because you don't want to have a deep discounted game that can then be sold on elsewhere.

"The secondary market then cuts in and then what will happen is the same sort of thing as you've seen in the high street whereby a supermarket chain puts a fantastic discount on a product for consumers and all the other high street retailers trot down to the supermarket to buy them to stop them."


I don't see this as a good thing. I think this is clearly going to poke too many holes into what could be a very functional and beneficial platform for both sides, just because people want to cling onto the ways of the physical. I see them as two very different things, and if you plan on reselling, keep buying the damn discs and they will have to keep making them.

My only real gripes with the current online market is that despite a lack of shipping costs, we still get screwed immensly compared to other markets, and anything they offer online should be made available infinitely. Otherwise, the likes of the iTunes and Android market has opened the doors for so many smaller developers with their big ideas, and the control over their own pricing has helped them find their feet better in the market. Why are we trying to destroy this for such a petty "right".

Where does this stop? Does this cover the likes of ebooks as well? If it doesn't then it will. Does anyone realise the amount of work involved in trying to facilitate such a stupid thing? Would I, as a hopefully soon to be independent author, fart around with supplying my books to Europe and having to deal with all this malarky, or am I more likely to say screw you, buy the more expensive physical thing and I'll just sell to the rest of the world?

Once again, I think certain people blindly like to try and stick it to "the man" without realising how much they're stunting the people they're claiming to champion.
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branden77
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This is bad, very bad.
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