For the most part, most Steam users don’t really give much thought to the fact that you can’t resell games purchased through Valve’s digital storefront. Well, that may change in France as a French consumer group, UFC-Que Choisir, has brought a lawsuit against Valve, saying that Steam and its terms of service infringe on a number of European legal rights which include the right to legally resell purchased software.
UFC-Que Choisir, the federal union of consumers, argues that Valve must provide the capability for Steam users to resell their legally purchased digital games whenever they want. The group further argues that the difference between being able to resell a physical game disc and not being able to resell a digitally purchased game is “incomprehensible… No court decision prohibits the resale on the second-hand market games bought online, and the European Court has even explicitly stated that it’s possible to resell software which, let’s remember, is an integral part of the video game.”
The statement above is referring to the European Court of Justice’s 2012 decision that focused on the resale of downloadable enterprise software licensed from Oracle. The court ruled that “it makes no difference whether the copy of the computer program was made available by means of a download from the rightholder’s website or by means of a material medium such as a CD-ROM or DVD”.
Valve’s right to restrict the ability for users to resell their games are only just a tip of the iceberg of UFC-Que Choisir as the group claims that Valve’s right to reuse any user-created content on Steam at will “denies….respect for the users’/creators’ rights of intellectual property”. The group also wants Valve to accept some liability if and when users’ personal data is compromised from Valve’s servers, citing Valve’s statement that 77,000 Steam accounts are compromised every month. The group also wants Valve to allow Steam users to refund remaining money out of their Steam Wallets when users close their accounts and disputes the use of Luxembourg law for any European complaints against the company.
This isn’t the first time Valve has been brought to court in European as a similar lawsuit was filed in Germany in 2014. Unfortunately, the Regional Court of Berlin ruled in favour of Valve.
However, even if UFC-Que Choisir successfully wins the case, do not expect this ruling to be applied anywhere else but in France. The US courts have decided that software is licensed and not purchased, meaning that the doctrine of first sale does not apply to digital games.
As for Malaysia, no known ruling exists for the resale of digital goods, so its still new territory in the country.
Source : Ars Technica
