You Don't Own Skyrim

[huntsman2310]

It can only be taken away if you are a pirate or downloaded it illegally. I'd gather at least.

 

And since you agreed, you willingly gave them permission to do that.

[MrBuio]

Welcome to 2005 news.

 

It's not like this hasn't been known for years. All about protecting themselves in any case. Steam wont just randomly terminate your games, it would result in a PR nightmare for a company that relies on its good reputation.

Edited February 17, 2012 by MrBuio

[rabidNode]

this is the ultimate method designed to counter the activities of free sharing

 

initially it was make them scared and then threaten them but it did not work

now it is simply get them used to the fact they dont own it and do not give them physical copies of the game

in the future the actual code to single and multi-player games will not entirely reside on your computer so they can monitor and control its release and gain revenue from as many leases as possible

 

not many people care about the precedent being set and some will go fanboy straight up to the point that they are not even able to have the game on their own machine and maybe even beyond that

 

in essence it truly is a brilliant model and delivery system but much like the economic system is brilliant it is quite unethical and is quasi theft since we pay up front and then pay up lease costs either through direct payment or stored demographics and ad sales.

 

never the less it is inevitable and mostly because a junky does not care where he gets his fix as long as he gets it. its base level psychology beta primal actually

its fascinating to observe

[Erisine]

Honestly, if you want to crap a brick over the fine print in a EULA, go read EA's Origin's service terms and be mystified as you discover you've given them the right to not just snoop about what games you are playing licensed to you through them, but also the right to track every piece of software on your PC, how you got it, where you downloaded it from, whether it was key-genned, cracked, or legal, how often you use it, and more, right down to your hardware specs... I wouldn't be surprised to see little goodies appearing in those EULA's in a few years giving EA the right to turn on your webcam remotely and spy on you live. EA sells software through Origin that isn't actually able to WORK on Origin (and you can't start it without), and they do so without telling you and they don't offer refunds -- when it comes to deciding who's more evil, the choice is clear.

 

But seriously, the EULA for Steam isn't that dangerous. It covers their butt in the rare case that they need to fully lock down your account -- normally, if you've been very naughty, they're just going to lock you out of the multiplayer functions for a particular game, though. If Steam makes use of this power inappropriately, and too often, people would notice and they'd likely get some hairy lawsuit, bad publicity, and an uptick in pirating (which means, loss of sales). All very bad juju for Steam, so they're not going to go around taking away your games.

 

Besides -- all DRM is flawed, but it's not inherently evil or bad. I think Steam is thus far the best attempt at it, since they at least provide a service that most of us Steam users enjoy.

[donniemunro]

I don't like Steam. I accept I don't have a choice if I want a particular game, but I don't have to like it.

 

My dislike of Steam has nothing to do with licensing agreements though, I just think Steam is a pain in the neck.

 

1. I've found Steam's technical support to be very poor.

2. I want to be allowed to choose where on my PC I install my games.

3. Steam seems to have a monopoly on DLC and so the price for extra content is high.

[Zavek00]

This whole debate it pointless anyway, everyone knows by now that you sign very similar EULAs whenever you download any software online.

It doesn't matter if it's game software, an accounting package or a nuclear missle targetting progam, or if you download it, get it on disk or get it on punch cards, unless you buy rights to the source code you never own the software, you only license it.

 

 

agreed no matter what software you **buy** or where you always agree to an EULA or terms of service before it allows you to install it. i cant understand the HUGE hatred there is for steam they are pioneers in software library handling hell i even dare say the best in the field origin is still in freaking beta and has been for what 7 years with 0 improvements broken p2p for game updates or installs and it crashes about every 50 mins for me and it never ever remebers my password despite i tick it to, sure the agreements you make can feel very step but, why the F would you go break them anyways, its *your* steam account its your licenses if your acc is hacked give em a ring, if your cd key aint working give them a ring if a game aint working post it on their forums mail them about it and they almoast always fix it, if not some other players have workarounds, they eve give us old timers some good ole fashioned games to be played like Xcom with a preconfigured dosbox so it actually runs

 

and if you ABSELUTLY dont want to put money into steams hands then dont buy anything from them you can still own a licsense for a game which runs through steam with a copy from a RL store near half of my games on steam are aquired this way hell nearly none of them have had their dvd ever leaving the case just the manual when i flip it for the key so i can add it on steam (yes i know it makes them own the key but as long as i have the paper copy it is MY key no matter their agreement cause i can dispute it in court, lawyers these days are doing everything they can to make you belive YOU cant while you still can).

 

and if you dont like how the situation is then its not steam your target is its the lack of a unified cyberlaws, im no expert but i reckon steam houses in USA so therefore all their services fall under their law if your not a US citizen chances that theyd even bother have someone reading a motion you send is slim so what can you do, well here is a creative thought start a massive cyberunion make the internetppls unite and through that have the power to actually set up cyberlaws that are global and make the changes on how cyberware may be distributed and handled. or perhapsyour yet a another one of those who dont like it but instead of doing something about it you sit on your ass and go DOWN WITH THIS, Nothing happens if no one puts effort for it to happenand i dont see ppl that are content with how things work to do anything about something they feel is working as it should so its up to you

 

i still cant seem to find a single point in these arguments to be valid why would steam go * hahaha they bought a copy of this no imma reject him muhahaha trollface* cause that would be lets see if you can guess it.. but i doubt it IT NOT GOOD FOR THEIR BUISNESS, and Arkay knows these times need to have some pillars in the economic world that stand strong Valve is one of them

 

P.S ther is no intentions of hostility from my part, i merely am sick and tired of ppl whining about things they feel they cant change at the flick of a finger, a wise man once said ''The world is not built for you, its for all of us, and everyone can do something to cause change as long as they have the fire to do so'' ponder this and then look at how we came to this.

[MisterGibson]

To OP : this is absolutely normal and has nothing to do with steam. It's simply a matter of intellectual property rights and this is how software ownership works.

 

The owner of the intellectual property rights on the software is always the creator of the software, alias the author. The buyer of a software is never granted the property over the software, unless the author agrees to it by contract. In most of the case the buyer only buys a licence to use the software, for a certain period, which can last forever. Again, it's a matter of contract provisions.

 

You have no ownership over the software but you have ownership of the licence, hence it grants you the right to use the software, within the limitations of the contract.

 

If Bethesda or Steam sold you the ownership of the software it would allow you to do everything you want with it while Bethesda couldn't do anything at all. You could decompile or modify the code. You could sell rights for publicity while Bethesda couldn't. You could even rename it My Skyrim and sell it because it's your property, you own Skyrim from every point of view.

 

Basically this would be a suicide for developing companies and they could not sell more than one game because they simply wouldn't own the soft anymore.

Edited February 17, 2012 by MisterGibson

[MorwynKelm]

actually what seems so odd is (finally) someone read an EULA...having been playing games since the archaic old days of clecovision. I just figured I'd point out that really at no point (console or otherwise) have you ever owned anything since the mid 90s..sure you had disks the game came on but even those belonged to the software company and you had only paid for limited rights to use such disks and they could be taken away at anytime...steam really isn't doing something new..its a fairly standard form

 

That isn't the point at all. The difference between 'buying a box', like in the old days, is that now you "buy a box" and they can come and take it away from you. They can remove, revoke your ability to use a product you purchased.

 

It's like buying a toaster and then one day the people who sold you the toaster come into your house and smash it with a sledgehammer to prevent you from using it again,

[hector530]

1. I've found Steam's technical support to be very poor.

2. I want to be allowed to choose where on my PC I install my games.

3. Steam seems to have a monopoly on DLC and so the price for extra content is high.

 

1. true

2. steam mover

3. steam is overpriced LOLOLOL good one, im gonna go check whats today's 5 dollar game.

[thesapien]

It can only be taken away if you are a pirate or downloaded it illegally. I'd gather at least.

 

And since you agreed, you willingly gave them permission to do that.

 

But anyone who agreed to the contract isn't a pirate unless they legally bought the game so that they could illegally give it to others. More like a robin hood.