European Court Says Software Resale cant be forbidden by TOS

[st0mpy]

Reselling game accounts may be possible soon, the European Court of Justice has ruled that contract law applies to first sale distribution rights of licences just as much as it applies to physical copies and any TOS clauses forbidding such exchange are invalid.

Game accounts such as Origin and Steam should provide a way to swap out (and in) second user licences at some point and free to play games should also not object to resale of account rights.

Read the story here
http://www.lo-ping.org/2012/07/03/eu-court-ruling-allows-for-re-sale-of-used-games-by-end-users-you/

ECJ Press Release
http://curia.europa.eu/jcms/upload/docs/application/pdf/2012-07/cp120094en.pdf

Full ECJ Ruling
http://curia.europa.eu/juris/documents.jsf?pro=&lgrec=en&nat=&oqp=&lg=&dates=&language=en&jur=C%2CT%2CF&cit=none%252CC%252CCJ%252CR%252C2008E%252C%252C%25 2C%252C%252C%252C%252C%252C%252C%252Ctrue%252Cfals e%252Cfalse&num=C-128%252F11&td=ALL&pcs=O&avg=&page=1&mat=or&jge=&for=&cid=5345624

[RPGforYOU]

I also have read that lawspeech. Does it really effect game user accounts aswell?

[st0mpy]

yep

I remember having long heated discussions about this regarding Windows COAs and it was exactly this point we stuck on - Microsoft were acting as if they were a law unto themselves giving companies selling reclaimed COAs a hard time and despite contract law being clear on tangibles, there was no precedent for licenced software to be grouped with tangible goods under the 'exclusive right of distribution is exhausted on first sale' clause because no one at that point had challenged these TOS terms in a higher court.

Of course companies inventing and relying on these clauses were just going to try it on as much as they could and forbid resale while the legal standing was unclear, they wanted their cake and to eat it. Â*That changed with the referral of this question to the ECJ and the court has ruled favourably for EU end users and licences to use software are resaleable like any goods are.

[RPGforYOU]

So this piece in TOS of EASY should be deleted! :D


- Unless expressly authorized by EA, you may not sell, buy, trade or otherwise transfer your Account or any personal access to EA Services, Content or Entitlements, including by use of auction websites.

[ExLee]

Poor choice of words, stompy. Reselling your account is already "possible" and a lot of people do it. Is it allowed ? Well, probably not but who reads those damn EULAs. :D

Now it's "allowed" by the law so EULAs mean shit although as of now this only seems apply to individual games. So it might be that you will still face consequences for selling your account because: Game =/= Account

But all in all considering that publishers do not like Used-Games market because all physical copies already have some sort CD-Key or Online-Pass I doubt any digital distributor will ever give you the option to sell individual games from your library. Unless they make you pay some sort fee which could make reselling unprofitable ÂÂ*:?

[st0mpy]

So this piece in TOS of EASY should be deleted! :D


- Unless expressly authorized by EA, you may not sell, buy, trade or otherwise transfer your Account or any personal access to EA Services, Content or Entitlements, including by use of auction websites.

pretty much, altho if they leave it itll be an invalid term they cannot rely on