Thread by @Toadsanime

A French court has found that Valve must allow Steam users to resell their digital games, in a landmark case that could set a precedent for other platforms:

reddit.com/r/Games/commen…

The magnitude of this ruling cannot be overstated. This could be huge.

Sets a precedent that platform holders must facilitate the ability for users to resell digital games. Potentially a huge move fowards for digital game preservation if folk press on this.

Of course, if nobody pushes this forward in wider regions, or against other platform holders... then big change won't happen. The precedent is a real cinch if anyone wants to move on it in court though!

IF this precedent spread, we'd be looking at a total shift of how digital content works.

How this digital reselling would work boggles me mind. But it's clear to me, morally, that consumer SHOULD be able to resell purchased digital content.

Could be you can resell digital content after you've owned it for a set period. Could be platform holder sets up a marketplace where they/publishers take a cut. No clue how it'd be implemented to not kill off the new market. Court didn't cover how, just that users had the right.

Entertainment industry may want to avoid this shift, if it does become widespread, by destroying ownership in general and going all-in on subscriptions.

Or falling back on physical media again.

Who the fuck knows! This is new territory.

I'm obviously focusing on games, because that's what I talk about, but this could obviously have a domino effect on all digital goods.

Really big shit here. Still boggles my mind to think about the drastic changes the world would face if this rolled out.