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Does “videogame” have a specific, legal definition in the EU? When does software become a videogame?

• scotty79 1y ago
  It doesn't have to be only about video games. I'm hoping it's gonna be about all software and all software vendors will be obligated to leave their software in working condition after they sunset it. The best take on this I read is that companies must prepare a way to transfer the product to the community after they no longer find it profitable. And that would be wonderful for all products. Not just software.
  • TylerE 1y ago
    I don't understand the idea that imposing some sort of infinite future obligation on an organization that can be easily made to not exist can possibly be viable. Frankly I think this whole "movement" is kinda dumb and deeply misguided.
    • wvbdmp 1y ago
      It’s not that hard to just publish your stuff when you’re done with it. I guess you could put it in escrow for, say, 10 years, in case you decide to do something with it later.
      • TylerE 1y ago
        Almost all games include large amounts of licensed code. Without the source to that what good does having the source for the game matter? Or the server?
        • wvbdmp 1y ago
          The licensing agreements just need to change accordingly such that dependencies will be available for preservation efforts. Laws can just make things happen. If you don’t want to participate in the market under these conditions, tough luck. Someone else will. There’s still plenty of room to make money from software.
    • scotty79 1y ago
      It's not infinite. It's just obligation for the end of life. It's not that far from obligations for the real-world businesses to clean up after themselves when they finish operation. What's dumb is that now businesses can infinitely sit on a piece of real estate they no longer use, at no cost to them. If that was real estate not IP they would at least have to pay property tax on it. It's kind of curious that businesses don't pay property taxes on IP, like at all. That might have really improved the ecosystem.
• wvbdmp 1y ago
  At least in Germany this seems to be based on a combination of market incentives, case law and “I’ll know it when I see it”. I believe theoretically, a govermnent agency could just decide to argue that e.g. Microsoft Word qualifies as a game. This would mean that it couldn’t be advertised or sold over-the-counter anymore, until Microsoft gets an age rating for it. There doesn’t seem to be an explicit legal definition, but the usual criteria are something like – it’s intended for entertainment – it isn’t intended for productive use. In practise, publishers must get an age rating or stores can’t have the game on the floor and may only sell it to adults, so it’s kind of up to the publisher. You could probably just tie a preservation responsibility to that. But really, all software should be preserved, so the distinction is kind of pointless anyway.
  • xeonmc 1y ago
    Also, what should be the regulation on “service portal” softwares? Where the functionality is inherently the server side service rendered and the software is just a remote control, some might argue their games qualify under that category to shirk responsibility, e.g. Roblox
  • xigoi 1y ago
    > – it’s intended for entertainment > – it isn’t intended for productive use. By this definition, Netflix is a video game.