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We got a law here in Norway in 2021 that states that if you lose access to digital goods you have paid for the seller needs to fully refund you. Now the laws h
by tyfon 2y ago
We got a law here in Norway in 2021 that states that if you lose access to digital goods you have paid for the seller needs to fully refund you.
Now the laws here are not retroactive, so it only applies to digital goods bought after 2021.
It's also worth noting that any agreement that gives the consumer less rights than the law are invalid, so you can't just slap something in the eula to get around it. This also applies to things like forced arbitration etc.
I think this type of regulation is the only way to curb the practice.
- maccard 2y agoI'm European, and generally support the idea of these kinds of regulations, but this is onerous if it is what you say. You're forcing people to indefinitely support an app against a moving target - that's fine on windows, but Mac has had two architecture changes in my career, browsers are ever moving targets. If a chrome update breaks my paid extension that you've used for 3 years, then im forced to refund you?
- TheLoafOfBread 2y agoYes you will refund him and then sue Google for breaking compatibility and damaging you in the process. Suddenly we will have incentive to keep backwards compatibility on all systems.
- maccard 2y agoThis sounds awful for everyone involved. No breaking APIs ever. How many man hours have been wasted supporting platforms that are dead for 20 years. Look at C++'s modules - they've taken 15 years to get to where we are now - they're still not usable because we're hamstrung by not ever breaking compatibility.
- TheLoafOfBread 2y agoLook at Windows and how awesome it is to use. I can run exe files from Windows 95 without recompilation.
- SiempreViernes 2y agoI think they are talking about this: https://www.forbrukerradet.no/forside/digitalt/strommetjenester-og-digitalt-innhold/#rettigheter-hvis-betalt-innhold-forsvinner-fra-tjenesten https://www.forbrukerradet.no/forside/digitalt/strommetjenes... which is about when the seller revokes access to content you bought, it's not about what happens when your ability to consume the content is prevented by technical problems.
- maccard 2y agoGotcha, thanks!
- danpalmer 2y agoI think support is different. If you buy a game that requires a particular machine spec and OS, and then come back 10 years later with a different OS, that's not the developer failing to meet their "contract", it's you failing to run the game on a system of the required spec. Now I do think there should be a carve out in the law to explicitly allow emulation, i.e. developers should not be allowed to prevent you using emulation, so that you have a reasonable path to continue using your content in the future.