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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

#241

Post by brnt »

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 generally hate getting the government involved in things, but

Why do you hate your elected representatives safeguarding fairness against large corporations like this?

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

#242

Post by ummonk »

User23 wrote: post #121
ummonk wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Copyright violation is a tort, not a crime. If you were sued for it, they'd have a hard time proving damages given that you have paid for a valid license.

Not necessarily[1]. [1] https://www.justice.gov/archives/jm/criminal-resource-manual...

Good point.

Though that criminal statue wouldn't apply to the actions described here, it is indeed an example of how copyright violations of some kinds can be crimes, even felonies.

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

#243

Post by ehnto »

hanniabu wrote: post #170
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…

> It's a shame that we are going to fight for our digital rights because currently we have almost none because justice does not understand technology. Reminds me of NFTs and people here arguing against what they don't understand.

NFTs wouldn't help here. I can have NFTs for the games on my steam account but if steam bans me who is honoring my NFT to provide me access to the game? No one. It's about as good as a paper receipt for a company you didn't purchase the item from.

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

#244

Post by lenkite »

fragsworth wrote: post #119
causi wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Is that really practical these days given the frequency of updates developers put out for their games?

More like "frequency of bugs" developers put out for their games. Best to buy only once the "GOTY/Definitive/Special edition" is released and all DLC's are available and when it's a couple of years and 50 patches old - including patches fixing the patches. And when the game is on holiday discount sale. The game is then smooth and playable with no blood-pressure inducing defects and doesn't need too much Googling/forum-posting on asking what went wrong.

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

#245

Post by numpad0 »

tdrdt wrote: post #213
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 think one simple legislation could help a lot: forbid to use the word 'buy' in this context. Instead it should be 'hire' or 'lease' or something. Once I 'bought' an e-book that was copy protected by Adobe (my fault I didn't read the specs before buying). But because you can only read it when Adobe's servers are online no ownership is transferred to you as buyer. You buy rights to read the book on their terms. 'Hire…

IMHO a better way forward is to de-categorize downloads of “purchased” items from “downloading” in legal context, such that removing access is considered theft rather than enabling downloads to be considered willful distribution.

That’s technologically backwards, but it’s not like justice system behavior and software industry logic always converged nicely.

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

#246

Post by Mathiciann »

birracerveza wrote: post #222

Decentralized ownership and file storage using NFTs on low energy blockchains would solve this. But no, let's keep complaining about the same problems over and over while we keep chanting that crypto is evil and can't be used to solve said problems.

My knowledge on blockchain is very limited so I don't understand how it could solve this problem. Can you elaborate?

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

#247

Post by npteljes »

CryptoPunk wrote: post #141

This is why we need blockchain-based smart contracts and NFTs to enforce digital ownership rights. The political system is far too unreliable and corruptible to depend on for robust private property rights. If the nation-states can just maintain a free and open internet, decentralized opt-in protocols can do the rest.

Who exactly will enforce that providers look at the blockchain instead of their own database, if not a political system? People maintaining an infrastructure just so they don't have control over it is also a pipe dream. This all is just like saying "if only we'd be nicer to each other", but in tech jargon.

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

#248

Post by MattPalmer1086 »

josephcsible wrote: post #179
EMIRELADERO wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree with your whole opinion on T&C's and abuse by companies, but they are still a contract, mostly because there is no "hard standard" in how a contract can be formed between two parties. Even a verbal agreement can be seen as a "contract" as much as a signed paper.

If I put a piece of tape across the door to your house, and I write "by breaking or removing this tape, you owe me $1000", is that a valid contract? One party shouldn't be able to just make up things that constitute agreement to a contract.

It would be a contract if you agreed to it. Without a meeting of minds and agreement there is no contract.

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

#249

Post by toper-centage »

lostcolony wrote: post #64
josephcsible wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> every console

Except the Switch.

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

#250

Post by matheusmoreira »

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.

> 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

Oh please. Virtually nobody reads that stuff. Chances are the handful of people who cared enough to read won't actually understand it. Are consumers supposed to consult lawyers before they spend money on products now? Even if you read, understand and agree to the deal, they can just change the terms later and there's nothing anyone can do.

I don't even want to stop paying them. I want them to stop their obnoxious bullshit so I don't feel like I'm a dumbass for trying to support creators every single time.

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