I'm not sure about Gears of War, but with Grand Theft Auto IV it explicitly states in the EULA that the license is valid until such time that the owner (publisher) decides it is no longer valid. So any time they decide that you do no longer own the licence it is gone. It may seem odd, but that is what you sign up for/pay for, you 'rent for and undefined period'.

That's a fair enough consideration. But, how long do you expect to still be able to get hard copies? 10 years? 15? Eventually we will all be buying from digital distribution platforms.

We can always back up our downloaded content to disc.

Drifitng OT now though.....

Really, i never knew that. Is that all platforms? That being the case, and this is a wish that i doubt will ever come to light, but, i think it's high time that the software companies made the EULA availbale to be read before purchase of any game/product.

Given prior knowledge to purchase, i will still clear of such limited titles just out of general principle. Again, another case of DRM encouraging piracy, not preventing it.

I think GC2/SINS has proven that.

Yes it does, but is that a bad thing? I have no problem with a company trying to make money, after all that is why they are in business. Brad has stated on these forums that he intends to make money with Stardock, and I'm sure he'll do what is needed to achieve that goal.

This has been discussed to death so many times on this forum, but its good to say it anyway... its too bad that the people who should be reading this don't...

at the end of the day, DRM only penalizes legit customers.... *sigh* ...

That is hilarious! Not sure if I believe the bit about it being linked to the anti-cheat system, but as noted above, only an actual programmer could really be an authority on the matter. I'm still slightly stunned that the gaming industry is coming to this - you have people who actually own a legitimate version of the game resorting to using cracks because of the mind-bogglingly oppressive security checks... and we're told this is apparently the new 'best business model'.

I think the first-sale doctrine precludes such blatant assfuckery shenanigans.

Except it's been legally determined that software does not fall under first sale. Not if it has a EULA, anyway - and I don't know of any software, including console games, that lacks one.

If the software has not been sold there can be no first-sale doctrine. Luckily, the majority software with an EULA is still sold, it's the nature of the transaction and not the fact that there is a license in the box that decides this.

There is follow-up story to the article linked in the OP, that confirms this has nothing to do with DRM. For this one, we have the cheaters instead of pirates to blame.

i purchased a copy of X3TC from steam, even though i can back up the installed files, i can't play it off-line.  I have to be on-line for steam to connect to their server, then allow me access to my game.  WTF.  I was royally pissed.  In another thread, i rant and whine about the fact that in Grand theft auto 4, i am not allowed to save my progress, unless i create an account with the so called "rock star Social club".  Meaning, i play the game, and have to have an Internet connection, and my progress gets saved onto their on-line server, not onto my hard drive i presume.  BUT if i have no Internet connection,  i can't save at all.  It is bad enough that on their website, that they stated with even the downloaded SecruRom uninstaller, i will not be able to totally un-installed securRom or some of its components.  Of course, the game came in a limited number of activation.

I would love to see a link to where the courts made this ruling. As far as I understand things the EULA question is a slippery one and one that may be addressed by the Obama administration - soon...

But why would they help protect consumers when buying evil things which put bad ideas in the heads of our children about violence and nucular war? Hehe, oops, wrong administration. I hope he does deal with this issue and others involving the rights of software consumers. Although by the looks of it he may be busy for the next couple years cleaning up after the mess which was the last 8 years...

I would like to see a coherent national policy on it as well. Not that I think it will end as you would like, but having a defined, legislated policy would be preferable to the current situation where one legal precident may or may not be accepted in other jurisdictions. In fact, UTICA was written explicitly to fill the legislative void that EULAs currently exist in, but only two states have accepted and enacted it.

The case I'm referring to is I. LAN SYSTEMS, INC v NETSCOUT SERVICE LEVEL CORP.

Or you could read the Game Cheats Are Illegal? thread, where this whole thing got thrashed around for a few months. The above ruling is cited on page 18, I believe.

Sorry to bump an old topic, but Epic has now released a patch that deals with the problem. Download here

Meanwhile, most people have probably already resorted to illegal solutions... *sigh*