Publishers Can’t Stop People From Reselling Digital Games, EU Court Rules

Well, this is interesting. Eurogamer brings the surprising news that the Court of Justice of the European Union has ruled that video game publishers cannot stop us from reselling the digital titles we’ve purchased. I’m not sure how the current tech used by Steam, Origin, GamersGate, or any of the other major services would allow for this, but perhaps this ruling will force them to add some sort of online market that allows us to buy/sell/trade our “used” digital copies:

The Court of Justice of the European Union has ruled that publishers cannot stop you from reselling your downloaded games.

More specifically: “An author of software cannot oppose the resale of his ‘used’ licences allowing the use of his programs downloaded from the internet.”

The Court said the exclusive right of distribution of a copy of a computer program covered by the license is “exhausted on its first sale”.

The ruling means that gamers in European Union member states are free to sell their downloaded games, whether they’re from Steam, Origin or another digital platform – no matter what End User License Agreement has been signed.

The ruling continues: “Therefore, even if the licence agreement prohibits a further transfer, the rightholder can no longer oppose the resale of that copy.”

The ruling suggests that if you’ve bought a license for a game off your mate, you’re within your rights to download it from the publisher’s website. “Therefore the new acquirer of the user licence, such as a customer of UsedSoft, may, as a lawful acquirer of the corrected and updated copy of the computer program concerned, download that copy from the copyright holder’s website,” the Court said.