The New Law that Reveals: We Don’t Own Digital Games
In the modern era, digital media has revolutionized how we consume entertainment. The shift towards streaming music and movies has made physical products less common. The same trend is now affecting video games, with over 90% of games sold in the UK being digital.
While digital media offers convenience—like instant access without the need to visit a physical store or manage multiple discs—it also comes with hidden terms and conditions. Digital storefronts are now required by California’s new law (AB 2426) to disclose that buyers do not hold unrestricted ownership over their digitally purchased content.
Key Points:
- Disclosure Requirement: Californian sellers must clearly state they are providing a license, not selling digital goods outright.
- Limited Ownership Rights: While this does not preclude the right to access your purchases temporarily, it highlights the transient nature of licensed media.
- Permanent Exclusions: The law does not apply when products can be permanently downloaded and is not applicable in situations where buyers are notified of terms clearly.
Implications:
This new law adds awareness that digital games, as well as other digital content, do not confer long-term ownership. It also brings to light the challenges of preserving retro or modern games through permanent downloads or physical media.
In the age of digital content, do you think it’s more important to own a permanent copy or have accessible licensed rights?
I used the loose term “aggressive DRM” to mean any kind of DRM that can at some point in the future prevent you from playing the game.
In any case what I mean is that when you buy a digital game, if it is DRM free you own the game, and if it employs some of these DRMs you don’t. And by “you don’t own physical games any more than you own digital games” I mean that the same is true for physical games. If they have such DRM then you don’t own them.
I bring the The Crew example because it is not so obvious to the casual person, once the servers were shut down you could not play the single player portions of the game either. And it’s something I’ve even encountered IRL, when I chatted with friends about that fiasco, some were disappointed to learn that their disc was worthless. Of course none were expecting to be able to do multiplayer activities, but not even being able to play the single player campaign was unexpected to some.
I made the statement about DRM being the only deciding factor because I do think it is. And the examples you provided are examples of that, either straight up requiring a connection to play or requiring a download from the servers to get the content. That’s what separates a game you own and a game that has been licensed to you.
In any case my initial comment was made because when these kinds of news are shared there is always the “that’s why I buy physical” comment. Which IMHO is a false sense of security. Even while buying physical it is important to check what kinds of DRM are implemented in the game, because you might not actually own it either. And physical is not an airtight solution, specially since there is nothing stopping publishers from implementing such online only requirements in physical games (and some already do).