5 ms·

I share a lot of your views but don't forget, this is only about the French market; in all likelihood Steam would either comply only locally (though other count

by K0SM0S 7y ago

I share a lot of your views but don't forget, this is only about the French market; in all likelihood Steam would either comply only locally (though other countries might follow suit, literally, especially in Europe) or pull out entirely from France (unlikely imho, it's still a rich market, but who knows how crazy things can get nowadays).

ineedasername 7y ago
I'm not sure it would only be France. The law in this case is tightly bound to EU laws on the matter, and so it seems a pretty good chance this would end up forcing Valve to do this for the entire EU. That would complicate things quite a bit beyond the EU too: If consumers have a right to resell, can Valve abridge that right to prohibit resale by an EU citizen to someone in the US? I suspect that question too would need to be tested in courts.
- K0SM0S 7y ago
  Oh you're probably right about this. It's probably integrated at the EU level now. However, a precedent in 1 one country isn't binding at the EU level, you'd have to attack at the Union level to force a Union-wide judgement (afaik). Meanwhile, individual countries, likes States in the US I suppose, may sue these digital providers. Your point about cross-country (e.g. France <-> USA) transations is very, very interesting. Afaik, with physical goods, I'm not allowed to take an EU game and sell it second-hand in the US because the product is not allowed in the first place in that market (if you remember, console cartridges weren't even the same format sometimes, and nowadays I don't think consoles discs can be played in any region). So there's that, I can see the gaming industry replying that it's only normal to prohibit products from crossing geographical markets. Which I always found one of the worst attack on customer experience, but I feel internet in general is about to become more and more restricted in its commercial use, just as much if not more than the physical world ever was.

by K0SM0S 7y ago

ineedasername 7y ago

I'm not sure it would only be France. The law in this case is tightly bound to EU laws on the matter, and so it seems a pretty good chance this would end up forcing Valve to do this for the entire EU. That would complicate things quite a bit beyond the EU too: If consumers have a right to resell, can Valve abridge that right to prohibit resale by an EU citizen to someone in the US? I suspect that question too would need to be tested in courts.

K0SM0S 7y ago
Oh you're probably right about this. It's probably integrated at the EU level now. However, a precedent in 1 one country isn't binding at the EU level, you'd have to attack at the Union level to force a Union-wide judgement (afaik). Meanwhile, individual countries, likes States in the US I suppose, may sue these digital providers. Your point about cross-country (e.g. France <-> USA) transations is very, very interesting. Afaik, with physical goods, I'm not allowed to take an EU game and sell it second-hand in the US because the product is not allowed in the first place in that market (if you remember, console cartridges weren't even the same format sometimes, and nowadays I don't think consoles discs can be played in any region). So there's that, I can see the gaming industry replying that it's only normal to prohibit products from crossing geographical markets. Which I always found one of the worst attack on customer experience, but I feel internet in general is about to become more and more restricted in its commercial use, just as much if not more than the physical world ever was.