Ubisoft deleted account with hundreds of dollars’ worth of games for inactivity • Hacker News Board

Re: Ubisoft deleted account with hundreds of dollars’ worth of games for inactivity

#61

Post by wyattpeak » Mon, Dec 27, 2021, 5:46 AM UTC

pdonis wrote: post #54

Hokusai wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You have the right not to pay money to companies that won't give you the guarantee of ownership and access that you want. I have way more rights than that. Or if not I will fight to get them. I do not want to depend on the good will of corporations. I want fair laws that control their behavior like we have with physical goods.

> I have way more rights than that. Or if not I will fight to get them. So let me get this straight: companies are offering a recreational product, games, on terms you don't like. But instead of not paying them money, so they will be forced to either change their business model or go out of business, you want to get the government involved? For games ? > I do not want to depend on the good will of corporations. Good…

> For games?

No, for money.

These actions are always dismissed on the basis that they're not selling something important. But setting aside the question of whether that's valid, they are selling in exchange for something important.

Re: Ubisoft deleted account with hundreds of dollars’ worth of games for inactivity

#62

Post by xhrpost » Mon, Dec 27, 2021, 5:46 AM UTC

MattGaiser wrote: post #36

sefrost wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wouldn’t feel any guilt about pirating the content I bought on any of those services if my account was taken from me for inactivity. I’d be interested to hear the argument about why that would be wrong though.

I would be interested in knowing if that would be legal. As might you technically have purchased your license?

I remember a story a while back of a gentleman who had a house fire and then went and later pirated all the music CDs he had lost. I think they interviewed a copyright lawyer who basically says that the law doesn't permit that, I remember the quote that buying a copy entitles you to a copy and that "there is no such thing as a listening right".

Re: Ubisoft deleted account with hundreds of dollars’ worth of games for inactivity

#63

Post by pdonis » Mon, Dec 27, 2021, 5:46 AM UTC

endisneigh wrote: post #51

pdonis wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These are games we're talking about. They're recreation. For people to be demanding legislation because a recreational activity isn't set up just the way they like it, when they knew the terms perfectly well before they paid their money, is not "participating in cultural works".

You're entirely missing the point of the comment if you think it's about games. It's about digital goods.

I can't think of any "digital good" where there is a risk of losing access in this way that isn't recreational in a similar way to games. So my comments would apply equally well to any such goods.

Re: Ubisoft deleted account with hundreds of dollars’ worth of games for inactivity

#64

Post by lostcolony » Mon, Dec 27, 2021, 5:46 AM UTC

josephcsible wrote: post #42

paxys wrote: post #28

I paid extra for a disc version of the PS5 for exactly this reason. If I buy a game today I want to be able to play it 20 years from now. I can bet money that none of the mainstream digital stores of today will be operational by then.

Is that even a guarantee though? In particular, I know that you could buy the Orange Box (HL2, TF2, and Portal) on DVD in retail stores, but you needed a Steam account to play anyway.

It isn't. Even discounting day 1 patches, every console assumes an internet connection. You're at the mercy of the game devs, and unless you are checking for "internet connection required" (and believing the lack of such on the box means you really don't need one), you can still end up with something that will refuse to boot unless it phones home.

Re: Ubisoft deleted account with hundreds of dollars’ worth of games for inactivity

#65

Post by josephcsible » Mon, Dec 27, 2021, 5:47 AM UTC

sefrost wrote: post #29

endisneigh wrote: post #15

This article is a great example of why we need legislation around ownership of digital items. I generally hate getting the government involved in things, but if you're paying money for goods, there needs to be a way to be credited or receive your digital goods in a way that still works without your "account". Personally I always get kind of nervous around buying things on PSN, Xbox, Stadia, Steam, Oculus, etc. If the…

I wouldn’t feel any guilt about pirating the content I bought on any of those services if my account was taken from me for inactivity. I’d be interested to hear the argument about why that would be wrong though.

It's definitely fine morally, but unfortunately it's illegal anyway.

Re: Ubisoft deleted account with hundreds of dollars’ worth of games for inactivity

#66

Post by MereInterest » Mon, Dec 27, 2021, 5:47 AM UTC

pdonis wrote: post #30

Hokusai wrote: post #21

> We may also close long-term inactive accounts to maintain our database. How many kilobytes takes too store ownership data? I can just imagine that tracking data is thousands of times bigger. > The crazy thing about this is that it’s perfectly legal for video game companies to delete your account regardless of whether you’ve spend zero or a thousand dollars on their games It's a shame that we are going to fight for…

You have the right not to pay money to companies that won't give you the guarantee of ownership and access that you want. But if the lack of that guarantee is right there in the company's terms of service, and you pay them money anyway, you don't have the right to insist that they change the terms you signed up to when you paid them just because you don't like the consequences.

What the large print giveth, the small print may not taketh away. If the large print says "Buy", the small print may not alter that to "License for a limited time that may be ended whenever we feel like it." The small print may clarify what the large print says, but direct contradiction is a form of false advertising.

Re: Ubisoft deleted account with hundreds of dollars’ worth of games for inactivity

#67

Post by causi » Mon, Dec 27, 2021, 5:48 AM UTC

sefrost wrote: post #29

endisneigh wrote: post #15

This article is a great example of why we need legislation around ownership of digital items. I generally hate getting the government involved in things, but if you're paying money for goods, there needs to be a way to be credited or receive your digital goods in a way that still works without your "account". Personally I always get kind of nervous around buying things on PSN, Xbox, Stadia, Steam, Oculus, etc. If the…

I wouldn’t feel any guilt about pirating the content I bought on any of those services if my account was taken from me for inactivity. I’d be interested to hear the argument about why that would be wrong though.

These days I generally pirate the single-player content I purchase anyway. Anything that requires Origin, Epic, uPlay, or any other cancerous software to be installed gets paid for and promptly pirated. I trust the Pirate Bay more than I trust Ubisoft.

Re: Ubisoft deleted account with hundreds of dollars’ worth of games for inactivity

#68

Post by josephcsible » Mon, Dec 27, 2021, 5:48 AM UTC

pdonis wrote: post #63

endisneigh wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're entirely missing the point of the comment if you think it's about games. It's about digital goods.

I can't think of any "digital good" where there is a risk of losing access in this way that isn't recreational in a similar way to games. So my comments would apply equally well to any such goods.

Two that immediately come to mind are online textbooks and Adobe Creative Cloud.

Re: Ubisoft deleted account with hundreds of dollars’ worth of games for inactivity

#69

Post by kosievdmerwe » Mon, Dec 27, 2021, 5:48 AM UTC

vital_beach wrote: post #19

ramijames wrote: post #3

People won't like this, but we at Ultra.io are trying to tackle this exact problem by deploying certificates of ownership to a decentralized ledger as proof of your owning a game. AKA, we want to mint NFTs for each game sold, which allows a user to prove they own it. People hate those words, but we think that the tech has real value and a use-case in the market for solving inequity between publishers and users. This…

they had a database entry linking his account to a purchase. it's not like his access to the game was forgotten. they just chose not to honor it. a blockchain proof isn't any more compelling than the info they already had + his payment records.

"We irreversibly logged an entry deactivating your account to the blockchain. Nothing we can do to reactivate it."

Re: Ubisoft deleted account with hundreds of dollars’ worth of games for inactivity

#70

Post by platz » Mon, Dec 27, 2021, 5:48 AM UTC

josephcsible wrote: post #65

sefrost wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wouldn’t feel any guilt about pirating the content I bought on any of those services if my account was taken from me for inactivity. I’d be interested to hear the argument about why that would be wrong though.

It's definitely fine morally, but unfortunately it's illegal anyway.

No post body was provided.