European Union court ruling states gamers free to resell digital games
In terms of influential court rulings, the most recent ruling by the Court of Justice of the European Union is a huge one. As reported by Eurogamer, this abovementioned court has ruled that games publishers have no legal right to prevent people reselling digital games once they have purchased them.
The court’s ruling read in part:
“An author of software cannot oppose the resale of his ‘used’ licences allowing the use of his programs downloaded from the internet.
…
Therefore, even if the licence agreement prohibits a further transfer, the rightholder can no longer oppose the resale of that copy.”
The ruling is very clear: once a publisher sells a game to a customer, that customer owns the rights of distribution of that game, and they are legally able to do whatever they like with it. Customers can legally resell downloaded games, regardless of where they purchased that game, and what EULA is associated with the original retailer.
This is a landmark ruling, and one that will no doubt change the landscape of the games industry.
More information on the ruling can be found within the Eurogamer article.
Source: Eurogamer
