this post was submitted on 08 Mar 2024
442 points (71.5% liked)
Piracy: ꜱᴀɪʟ ᴛʜᴇ ʜɪɢʜ ꜱᴇᴀꜱ
54716 readers
335 users here now
⚓ Dedicated to the discussion of digital piracy, including ethical problems and legal advancements.
Rules • Full Version
1. Posts must be related to the discussion of digital piracy
2. Don't request invites, trade, sell, or self-promote
3. Don't request or link to specific pirated titles, including DMs
4. Don't submit low-quality posts, be entitled, or harass others
Loot, Pillage, & Plunder
📜 c/Piracy Wiki (Community Edition):
💰 Please help cover server costs.
Ko-fi | Liberapay |
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
It's not yours. You buy a revocable license. Read their TOS.
How are they going to take the file off my computer?
Mr. GOG comes to your house and destroys the drive you're storing the game on
Same as every other store with DRM: they won't. Still doesn't mean you own your games.
Right, but a store with DRM can effectively prevent me from playing the games, that's where my ownership effectively ends.
With GOG, there's no DRM. So in all senses except some weird philosophical context, I do own the game. I paid money and received a file(s) that I can relocate, make backups of, burn to disc, archive, etc.
You could argue that if they revoke the license and I continue using the file that I have on my computer, that I'm now committing piracy, but that's getting into a big technicality
does it matter if that license is only needed to download the game? once you have it downloaded, it doesn't matter if the license gets revoked (it only grants you the ability to download the game, and use galaxy online/social features such as achievements and multiplayer)
Gog has no drm. So effectively who cares.
But DRM-free means there's no mechanism to revoke that license. Which is really how it should be because entities shouldn't be able to benefit from a sale and then retract their side of the deal and keep the money just because they made up some terms that say they can do that.