Wolf

@Wolf@lemmy.today

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Reminder that you do not own digital games⁩ ⁨⁨20⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago⁩:

  Clearly I was referring to copyrighted material you don’t own the copyright to, but sure.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Reminder that you do not own digital games⁩ ⁨⁨22⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago⁩:

  I think the confusion comes about from the different meanings of the world “own”. When you buy a book it comes with an implied personal use license to the contents of the book. I think most people are aware that you aren’t allowed to make copies of the book and sell those copies. You do “own” the physical copy though. You can do whatever you want with it besides copy it and sell the copies. Technically you aren’t allowed to even make a physical copy for personal backup purposes, but that does typically fall under fair use. So while it’s still breaking copyright rules, you aren’t likely to be prosecuted for it.

  The same is true with software unless some other license is used (ex GPL) except, with software you are allowed to make 1 copy for the purpose of archiving the software in case it is damaged or lost. You must destroy or transfer your backup copy if you ever decide to sell, transfer or give away your original valid copy. It is not legal to sell a backup copy of software unless you are selling it along with the original.

  The DMCA circumvented this by making it illegal to break encryption in order to make a backup. So while you technically still have the right to make the copy, breaking encryption in order to do so is illegal.

  All that being said, if you buy a DRM free copy of a game, in theory you ‘own’ it in the same way you would own any other piece of non-encrypted software. You could legally make a backup and even sell the game to someone else as long as you deleted your copy and any backups at the same time.

  That’s as close to ‘owning’ a piece of copyrighted material as you are ever going to get. So while you don’t ‘own’ the IP, you do ‘own’ your copy along with the implied license. That is again assuming the game doesn’t come with a license that explicitly states you aren’t allowed to copy or sell it.