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

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

#191

Post by trembonator »

xhrpost wrote: post #62
MattGaiser wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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".

No post body was provided.

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

#192

Post by senko »

sshine wrote: post #153

Not computer game, but this happened to me with Audible. I don’t have that many gmail addresses (2), and neither of them apparently own any books, even though I once had 20+ books. I’m not getting that sh*t again.

Not saying this happened to you, but I once lost half an hour to figuring out wth I lost all my Audible books when getting a new device (phone). Turned out the app happily logged me in to audible UK without saying anything (silently creating a new account), which, of course was empty.

Once I figured out how to point the app to Audible US, all my content was back.

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

#193

Post by buraktamturk »

Hokusai wrote: post #38
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.

Because laws are not about justice. If you get something stolen you need to go to a judge to get a sentence that gives it back to you. You cannot take justice on your hands and expect to not be punished.

I don't think that is entirely true. For example, if a cheating happens in an online game you don't wait a court decision to ban the player - taking the justice on your hands and expect to not be punished. Or killing a person is illegal but you can use your self-defence rights if the other person is trying to kill you. You can use interfaces from copyrighted language (Oracle v. Google) for fair use purposes without getting a court decision first.

If the thing that you are trying to do is legal by universal laws, international laws and national laws (in order). You don't really need to worry.

In that stealing example let's assume someone stole something and you "stole" it back. Good luck for the first stealer to initiate a court case - which probably the stealer will not initiate because he will lose it plus with the expenses for the court. No court case meaning no complains therefore no crime.

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

#194

Post by AussieWog93 »

humanistbot wrote: post #75
lostcolony wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Generally speaking, it's uploading/transferring content to others that is illegal, not downloading it for yourself. At least, de facto if not de jure.

In most jurisdictions, copyright infringement isn't a crime, it is a civil tort, meaning you can be sued by the copyright holder for damages. Most big media copyright holders (MPAA/RIAA/etc) have a policy of only going after uploaders because it just isn't cost effective to go after downloaders for damages. A downloader can only be sued for the retail value of what they downloaded, while uploaders can be sued for the…

>A downloader can only be sued for the retail value of what they downloaded

Is this the actual law?

I remember hearing about people being sued for $100k+ just for downloading a few albums back in the Limewire days.

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

#195

Post by justinclift »

> The company’s support page also cites the General Data Protection Regulation compliance and freeing database space as the main reason why they delete unused accounts.

Oh wow. That 1k of database data must really be dragging down their system.

/s

Seriously, what kind of child's-first-attempt-to-use-a-database system are they using where this is even a consideration? :(

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

#196

Post by okwubodu »

hhmc wrote: post #188
okwubodu wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tokenized game licenses could presumably be transferred to a different wallet without depending on whatever game company to do the right thing.

But you're still completely dependant on the game company to do the right thing. A license exists so that it can connect to the license server -- which is owned by the game company -- which then allows you to play. You're still at their whims.

The token would have to be fungible such that an individual license can only be authenticated and not identified (“this is a real copy of the game” vs. “this is the copy we individually banned”)

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

#197

Post by ramchip »

AussieWog93 wrote: post #194
humanistbot wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In most jurisdictions, copyright infringement isn't a crime, it is a civil tort, meaning you can be sued by the copyright holder for damages. Most big media copyright holders (MPAA/RIAA/etc) have a policy of only going after uploaders because it just isn't cost effective to go after downloaders for damages. A downloader can only be sued for the retail value of what they downloaded, while uploaders can be sued for the…

>A downloader can only be sued for the retail value of what they downloaded Is this the actual law? I remember hearing about people being sued for $100k+ just for downloading a few albums back in the Limewire days.

Most likely they were also distributing (uploading), not just downloading.

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

#198

Post by Sunspark »

boring_twenties wrote: post #117
paxys wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Funny that you mention it. Sony announced earlier this year that they would be shutting down the PS3 store permanently (including the ability to download past purchases), and only delayed the move due to public backlash. They did shut the PSP store though, so those games are unplayable now.

The email I got from Sony back in March said that they were only disabling new purchases, "You will still be able to download your owned PS3, PS Vita, and PSP content, including games and video content." Full text: https://paste.debian.net/1224883/ Now that they've backed down, I'm pretty sure you can buy new PS3 games as well.

You can, but they made it more difficult in that you need to add funds over the web or through a PS4/5 or gift card. Also that the prices now tend to be the original list prices which never go on sale but do for PS4/5.

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

#199

Post by endisneigh »

okwubodu wrote: post #190
endisneigh wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OK, but where do you download the game? Even with licensing, you couldn't play offline? If so, what's stopping someone from just keeping the state of the blockchain such that the offline client thinks you own the games but you actually don't. Doesn't seem like it'd work to me without a central authority.

You set up a server and allow any wallet with the license in it to sign a valid request to download and launch the game. > Even with licensing, you couldn't play offline? That’s a good point. The GOG DRM-free model wouldn’t work here. Someone smarter than me could likely give you an answer.

You haven't explained where the game is stored, though. Where would the game be downloaded from? How much would it cost to do this. If you setup a server that's centralized the defeats the entire purpose of this.

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

#200

Post by buraktamturk »

buraktamturk wrote: post #193
Hokusai wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because laws are not about justice. If you get something stolen you need to go to a judge to get a sentence that gives it back to you. You cannot take justice on your hands and expect to not be punished.

I don't think that is entirely true. For example, if a cheating happens in an online game you don't wait a court decision to ban the player - taking the justice on your hands and expect to not be punished. Or killing a person is illegal but you can use your self-defence rights if the other person is trying to kill you. You can use interfaces from copyrighted language (Oracle v. Google) for fair use purposes without g…

There are many old games that runs some kind DRM system that is using deprecated Operating System API's - some of them are undocumented and mostly operated in ring 0.

Just because you pirated a game that you own a copy, in order to play it on newer version of operating system does not make you criminal. You may need a court decision only if you are not able to private or fix it without the company help but that's all.

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