You’re totally correct. The reason you’re getting downvoted is because that seems tangential to the problem you mentioned, which already has a solution (Family Sharing).
But yes, the world needs strong digital ownership laws yesterday.
Comment on Has the Deck turned *off* any other Steam users?
unexposedhazard@discuss.tchncs.de 3 weeks agothe fact that I don’t actually own my games
It doesnt solve this in the slightest. Steam and game publishers can always take your games away without prior notice.
BlameTheAntifa@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
TheLowestStone@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Yes, but that problem has literally nothing to do with the Steam Deck.
k1ck455kc@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
Fair, with steam i thing most people got into it years ago before “ownership” was even a concern, back before online games were so frequently shutdown soon after release. Its a good thing GOG and Sailing the 7 Seas are an option for preservation, not that it helps with online only games.
Now i still invest in steam because of its convenience. As soon as it becomes more cumbersome to use, i am done. Tbh if 3rd party app stores/secondary drm become more common i will probably stop investing in them. Its already a big issue that stops me from buying games…(Think denuvo)
Consoles are already to the point where its near impossible to own your game. Xbox overpriced their consoles so we dont buy them and just invest in gamepass. Not to mention their consoles dont work without online accnt. Playstation requires online activation for a disc drive to work with their new consoles. Nintendo doesnt even put 3rd party switch 2 games on the cartridge anymore.
I feel you, but steam is definitely the lesser of the evils here letting you use it on almost any hardware you want, even if you cant avoid the (for most games)
woelkchen@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Steam and game publishers can always take your games away without prior notice.
Technically: Yes. Legally: Doubtful.
Publishers can choose to no longer run servers but to remove games from the accounts without compensation, would be legal trouble.
When Sony axed Concord, all buyers got a full refund for a reason and that reason isn’t that Sony is such a caring company.
Ulrich@feddit.org 3 weeks ago
There is no doubt. Sony is actually a great example because they were the ones who tried to remove purchases from Discovery. They faced zero legal consequences. There wasn’t even any discussion of legal consequences because it’s perfectly legal. Ultimately Sony worked it out with Discovery to restore those purchases but they did not do that out of legality or out of kindness. They did it for their reputation. If Sony starts removing your streaming purchases, the same purchases you can make any a dozen other platforms, are you going to continue purchasing from them? Hail nah.
Concord was a bit different in that the content was only available for ~2 weeks so I’d imagine that would fall into some sort of legal grey area and they’d end up being sued or worse. As of yet, I don’t think “how long must ‘purchases’ be available?” has been tested in court.
woelkchen@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
There is no doubt. Sony is actually a great example because they were the ones who tried to remove purchases from Discovery. They faced zero legal consequences.
The legal justification is right there in the byline of the article you’ve linked.
Ulrich@feddit.org 3 weeks ago
Yes that’s why I linked to the article so you could see how you were incorrect.
Ulrich@feddit.org 3 weeks ago
You’re being needlessly pedantic. It solves OP’s problem of playing their library in multiple rooms simultaneously.
NoXPhasma@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
You never own any game, unless you code it yourself. You might hold a CD in your hands, but the game is still owned by someone else. You only have the right to use it as noted in the license you agreed by purchasing it.
DScratch@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
It’s true. Every book, movie, game or piece of software you’ve ever used (unless you made it yourself) has been subject to some kind of licence, that can be revoked.
egonallanon@lemm.ee 3 weeks ago
Sure but no one is going to come I to my home and take my physical books away in the same way that can happen with online digital services.
Philote@lemmy.ml 3 weeks ago
You can reverse this logic though. If you lose or damage your physical copy it’s gone forever, digital copies can mostly be redownloaded/recovered anytime.
unexposedhazard@discuss.tchncs.de 3 weeks ago
You have no idea what you are talking about. You can own and resell any physical piece of game media. If you have a gameboy cartridge, nobody can take that game away from you. If you have DRM free game files from gog, nobody can take that away from you.
The only case where this disgusting lincense shit is possible, is when games require being online and logging in to unlock the DRM.
tkohldesac@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Your physical media will degrade over time and you will eventually lose access to their fame you bought physically. There’s no correct answer in this, unfortunately, and is fully your opinion. You can own and resell your physical media until it no longer functions and then where are you? You’re in the same boat as the person who bought digitally and lost access to their license. Even DRM free games from gog are only around until they stop hosting your download. If they stop hosting it and the hardware you own with your copy on it fails, you will again own nothing.
nekusoul@lemmy.nekusoul.de 3 weeks ago
Although, at least with DRM-free games you’re given all the tools to preserve the game yourself if you want to.
DigDoug@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
This argument applies to almost anything that’s possible to own, though. What happens when your bike degrades to the point that it’s not usable as a bike anymore?