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Is the Half-Life 2 EULA Illegal?
Ant writes "Many people are having problems connecting to the Steam servers to play Half-Life 2, and now the legal agreements that surround a purchase of Half-Life 2 have been examined. The German Consumer Association has found that the packaging on Half-Life 2 is misleading. In a report made following complaints from the public, they said that the mere listing of an internet connection under the 'other' category in system requirements did not accurately describe the true extent of the internet tie-in with the game, and ordered Vivendi to amend the packaging and untie Steam from HL2 or face a hefty fine."
Or is this going a little overboard
In a report made following complaints from the public, they said that the mere listing of an internet connection under the 'other' category in system requirements did not accurately describe the true extent of the internet tie-in with the game.
Wouldn't listing "Internet connection" under "System Requirements" (even under some "Other" category), imply that an internet connection is a requirement?
I haven't seen the packaging myself, but it seems pretty clear-cut to me.
For years, large corporate game publishers have been setting all the
rules for gamers and game developers alike. Valve software, because
they are privately funded, has a chance to change the way games are
not only distributed, but the amount of control that the corporate
pointy-hairs wield. What do gamers do? They promptly shoot
themselves in the foot by whining about how steam is n't perfect.
And it's not. Steam still has all kinds of things that bug me.
However, Steam is a huge step in what I believe is the right
direction.
Game publishers have been REQUIRING that more and more copy
protections be added to games. These protections often make the game
UNPLAYABLE to PAYING CUSTOMERS. (Note the idiocy of Vivendi in
requiring a CD check for the CD version of HL2.) They go as far as
installing stealth DRIVERS for your hardware to enable these copy
protections.
Steam offers an alternative. True, it requires an internet
connection. (Oh no.) True, it's not perfect. But it's got a MUCH
better future then the alternative.
Not only does Steam offer an alternative way of authentication, it
ALSO offers and alternative method of distribution. The beauty is NOT
that distribution occurs over the internet. The beauty is that
distribution is easily available to small developers.
No need to fight for shelf space at distribution outlets. No need to
coordinate mass-production facilities and release dates.
Vivendi, et al. would like few things better then to see Steam fail.
It would be icing on the cake if gamers themselves stuck a knife in
its back.
On the other hand, I think that requiring an internet connection to use software you bought in the store ought to be fucking illegal, unless the software is internet-centric. HL2 is not; only some of its features are. They are holding your software hostage. You're just leasing it.
Of course, that's not what the law says, so I think this is the wrong way to go about this.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Its not about an internet connection being required, its about the fact that the box doesn't mention having to install Steam to play it and how "internet connection required" != Steam.
While I agree that online distribution is a potential boon for the independent developer house, it doesn't have to come at the price of "if we go under, you can't play". Having been bitten by *that* shell game already I refuse to buy any software that requires authentication with the mothership if there is a viable alternative available. There is nothing like upgrading your computer to find that your reg key is missing or invalidated by the upgrade... and that the company either doesn't exist or refuses to issue a new key without a browbeating. I have enough to do each day without battling authentication schemes. (And yes, I have a few disks that fail due to DVD incompatability... that's why I keep a CD drive installed.)
Off topic: WTF is up with the manual line breaks?
Sig under construction since 1998.
While your comments are technically correct, there is a big difference between needing a connection to unlock the game, and needing a connection to download 180 MB of files before that will even take place. Is getting HL2 up and running possible with a 26.4k connection? Certainly. Even with a 300 bps modem it's possible. But it's beyond practical.
Mutant Freaks of Nature: "Frighteningly Addictive"
What do you do if you buy it, install the discs, and can't create a Steam account because Steam is broken? And you can't return it because the retailer won't take back open software. The package should read "You need an Internet connection and a Steam account, but we aren't going to guarantee that you can create one because Steam sux0rz." It sounds like they have a legitimate argument to say "Remove the Steam requirement to play the single player game, because you're screwing customers."
No sig for you!!
It's simple: by buying HL2, you just haven't bought a game. Not even a user license. What you have paid are "subscription fees". And what you have is just a subscription to some content on an online (?buggy?) service. And don't believe it is a lifetime subscription. Just read the damn SSA, it is definitely not a no-brainer.
And it's getting really fun when you start comparing with the retail HL2 EULA. There are contradicting themselves on such little details like change of terms and billing, termination and transferability. But bad luck, the evil SSA is suposed to superseed the nicer retail EULA.
I know I'm paranoid and that Valve may not do something of terrible taste, like for instance adding recurring charges to Steam in order "to defray" bandwith costs (a bit like they are charging $10 if you want to re-sell the game, to "defray the costs" of this operation). But they claim in the SSA to have that kind of rights. And I find this legal trick with the SSA/EULA to be already of VERY bad taste, especially for a company whose marketing line is to be THE company who really cares about its fan base....
And is there any official clarification on theses issues from Valve? Well, on the Steam forums, apart the "We are tired of these legalese chats" from the mods and the "We are experiencing a troll infestation" by a Valve representative... nothing really meaningfull. (Apart maybe the funny "our $10 re-sell fee is *consistent* with VU after-90-days warranty" which was very rapidly deleted...)
Erm, choosing the fine does not normally allow you to continue your illegal behaviour. The fine is there to tell you to change your ways and make it stick. Persist, and stricter measures will follow.
Unfortunately paying the fine might be a business model for Micro$**t in Europe because the fine is limited to 10% of turnover. As long as their profit margin is way higher than 10%, all they'll take is a slight hit in the share value.
Seems like the problem here isn't with Steam the distribution system, but Steam the authentication system.
I have no problem with Valve distributing games via Steam. That's there prerogative. I do have a problem with having to reconnect to steam, unless I want to pull my network cable (offline mode has not worked for me unless I do that), every time I want to play.
As so many people have mentioned, some of us like to come back to games we've played in 5 or 10 years and just give it another go-round. Steam the authentication system has the potential to make that impossible.
I must disagree with you. Simply having an internet is a requirement. His internet allows him to post on /.. He clearly has one. Internet registration SHOULD simply consist of:
/..
COMPUTER: "Hello. I am registering this serial number XYZZY".
STEAM: "OK. Thank you. Would you like a patch?"
COMPUTER: "Not enough bandwidth. No thank you."
STEAM: "No online play allowed then. Enjoy your single-player game! Please upgrade in the future."
That is perfectly reasonable, and it the "standard" in the industry. Begin force-fed 50MB before you can even begin a single-player game is not very customer-friendly -- especially if you have no idea that this is going to happen. And some mother might pick up the latest and neatest game for her kid, without really understanding what is involved. Not everybody reads
"-1 Troll" is the apparently the same as "-1 I disagree with you."
Gee. That's funny. I though that I remembered seeing HL2 boxed sitting in Best Buy, where they do not ask you how much you have read about the game before agreeing to sell you a copy. Come to think of it, I believe that they even let NON-GEEKS and AVERAGE PEOPLE in Best Buy! How could they do that! To think that they sell items to people who might not have read 20 articles on an item before buying it!
I do agree that most people knew about it. But I bet that a fair amount of sales was also to people who just saw a pretty box on the top slot of the bestseller end-cap.
"-1 Troll" is the apparently the same as "-1 I disagree with you."
I shouldn't have to point this out, but you only are required to have an Internet connection to log onto Steam when you first install the game. Once properly verified you're not pirating it, you can run the game in Offline Mode.
That said, for some reason I feel that since I had to point out that, I should further point out that if you care to play ONLINE, against people, then yes, you do need to remain connected.
So you are effectively a pirate, since you're playing a game you've not paid for.
:-)
I had the same problem, I tried noCD first and it worked. If it hadn't worked, I would have returned the game.
It seems only fair to compensate developers for their work. I'm not happy with Atari for imposing this annoying 'protection', but I figure that there'll be enough pissed-off customers (and pirates like yourself) to hurt them for it
They should know by now that it doesn't work, it's only hurting 'nice' customers who have no idea why their game keeps saying 'insert the correct CD'.
Neither patience nor luck is listed as a system requirement, so the complaint about the packaging being misleading still stands.
I'd rather be lucky than good.