The author does not post on the Internet any documents hidden from users. All documents used in the blog are publicly available on the Electronic Arts website. The author is not a lawyer, so if he is wrong about something, correct him in the comments.

Hello my pluses. It seems I started too many categories, but why not?? “I’ll read for you” is another micro-blog section, within which we will understand the EULA (user agreement), namely what you sign, for which you can be banned from games and other interesting things. Why is it needed?? Because many people simply do not read these user agreements, which is why I decided to talk in a more understandable language about their main points that you need to know before accepting.

If you don’t know what an EULA is and/or don’t understand how this type of license works, then please read my last blog on the topic of software licenses – *poke*. I will be very glad if you also read it, because due to SG restrictions (damn bot) it received quite a few views.

Today we will start with more or less light agreements, namely the agreement for Electronic Arts games. Why light? Basically, EA agreements are quite small, and now they are generally unified by one agreement, although previously they released a template EULA separately for each game.

This is the base! You need to know this!

At the moment, all EA software uses the EA EULA, due to which this agreement applies to all of the company’s software products. For now, let’s consider the first points of the agreement, because they are quite important for further understanding.

I think it is necessary to note that by using Electronic Arts services and software (games) you automatically accept the user agreement, without even clicking on the checkbox when installing or registering it. The company states in the agreement itself that if you do not agree, do not use.

– So wait a minute! There it is written only for services – someone will write in the comments. The fact is that EA combines the services themselves, sites, games, platforms, etc. into “EA Services”. Personally, I think that in this way the company is trying to impose even more responsibility on those who buy accounts or pirate games, because the pirate is already entering into an agreement with EA without even knowing it.

Why do I think so? Because automatic agreement is simply not necessary if you already click on the agree checkbox when creating an EA account.

Moreover, at EA this practice extended not only to the modern user agreement, but also at least to the old user agreements of Battlefield 4 and 3:

EA have not deleted their old agreement for BF4, you can find it on Google and they will give you a direct link to the file that is on their website (EA.com).

Finally we can go to the account. An EA account (account) is required for further use of some games and services of the company. It belongs only to us and we are responsible for all actions performed from this account. In case of violation of the contract, including in the case of use of the entry by a third party, it may be blocked or deleted. If you want to delete your account yourself, you need to contact EA technical support. In some countries, EA may charge you a request fee.

To register an account you need:

Have either the age of 18+ years, or 14+ and parental permission in accordance with Article 26 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation. Please note that in the second case, responsibility for your account rests with your parents or those acting as a guardian.

Be a tax resident of the Russian Federation. According to paragraph 2 of Article 207 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, these are either citizens of the Russian Federation or foreigners who spent a total of at least 183 days in the country within a year from the date of first entry.

So, we figured out about the account, but what about games and donations in these games?? Still, Electronic Arts is famous for its impulses to monetize almost every game it has, and some of them are even released every year, thereby giving even more money and forcing them to buy even more donations.

In short, I will definitely open America to everyone, you don’t buy games, but according to the agreement you don’t even rent. The fact is that you are actually making a purchase, but not a game, but a personal, limited, non-transferable, revocable and non-exclusive license to use the game. What does it mean? This means that you, even on Steam, did not buy Need for Speed ​​Unbound, but a license to install and use it.

Of course, as with any proprietary software (closed, usually commercial), you are prohibited from somehow modifying, copying, distributing and in some cases even using (more on this below) EA products, as well as decompiling them, somehow trying to extract the source code and, of course, using it.

Now let’s look at two examples, where in the first we’ll look at why it’s definitely not possible to use it, and in the second where there’s a kind of gray area:

1 example – you are the director/head of a legal entity: LLC, JSC, Federal State Budgetary Institution and others.
You are the head of the conventional LLC "Horns and Hooves", lately you have no work at all and decide to keep yourself busy with something. You remembered that you have an EA account with good old Battlefield 3 . After checking the specifications of your computer, which was recorded on legal. face, we decided to install the game after all. Go to the website, download and install the EA App, and finally install the game.
Time passes, you’ve been playing for several months with a happy face, and then people in uniform come to you, and they have a special device in their hands. They connect it and see that you have unlicensed software on your computer. Later it turns out that you violated the license even at the level of installing the EA App and logging into your account. The fact is that EA prohibits any commercial use of their software. You are outraged and ask the question – “That is, an unlicensed program? I bought a license and did not use it to make money." – but only in legal terms, even just by installing the software on a legal entity’s computer. PERSONS, you are already using it commercially.
So, we realized that it’s impossible, but what will happen?? Well, since you installed it on only one computer and it did not cause huge damage, then your legal. the person will be fined from 30 to 40 thousand rubles and your computer will be confiscated in accordance with paragraph 1 of Article 7.12 Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation.

POV: You downloaded Battlefield at work

Example 2 – you are an individual entrepreneur and you have your own store.
Let’s assume that you are an individual entrepreneur with your own store, no matter what, and you have your own office with a computer. You can install and play EA games without any problems at all. Why? I could be wrong, I’m not a lawyer, but this is a matter of both the user agreement and the law. The thing is, at the end of these bans it says "unless expressly permitted by EA or by law". What does this mean? Well, according to our law, an individual entrepreneur is the status of an individual who gives permission to conduct commercial activities, and not a new legal entity. face. Technically, you bought this computer for yourself, that is, it is personal, and does not fall into the field in which all installed software, even paint, is supposedly used for commercial purposes. You can both work on that computer and play. This can be a clear violation only if you actually use the conditional “Battlefield” to achieve commercial goals, for example: boosting the profile of another player. But even in this case, the fine will only be up to two thousand rubles with confiscation again in accordance with paragraph 1 of Article 7.12 Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation.
Simply put – you can play, but somehow get money from the game – no.

Are you glad you won’t be fined?.

Ok, I think we’ve got this figured out. What about donation?? It’s a little complicated here. The fact is that we have two more terms: “Data” and “Rights”. Data is part of the Services, which include games, game currency, DLC, your profile, in-game chat, etc. EA Rights are those rights granted under the license. Simply put, when you buy a game you receive a license under which you have the right to use this very game, but not all rights are granted under the license.

Donation currency is officially called "EA Virtual Currency". As you understand, it has no value, but it’s quite an interesting topic. The fact is that virtual currency is not officially sold. When you “buy” it, in the same FC Club (ex-FIFA), you actually acquire the RIGHT to “activate” the currency. The right itself cannot return, replace or refund.

Fun fact:

For Japan, there is an exclusive obligation in the contract, under which the buyer of the currency undertakes to spend it within six months. As I personally understand from the wording “any virtual currency,” a Japanese person can spend not the entire amount, but at least some part of the purchased currency. If he does not use it during this time, then, of course, this is a violation of the user agreement and EA will have the right to take action.

Rules and consequences

Perhaps we’ll skip over two points due to the fact that for the average user they are not particularly important. This is because points 4 and 5 are mainly about responsibility: somewhere they again remind about, sorry for the tautology, user responsibility, and somewhere EA refuses it. The only interesting thing is that EA can change the user’s personal data, as well as restrict access in a specific case, but I’ll talk about this below.

We move on to the most delicious part – the rules. The term "Rules of Conduct" defines a set of rules that a player must follow. For convenience, I divided all these rules into: technical and non-technical; I also simplified the wording, combined some points due to their similarity or duplication, and separated some altogether due to the fact that there are rules that, in terms of content, immediately take into account completely different scenarios. Since there is too much text anyway, instead of screenshots of the original, I will attach a link so that you can read for yourself what interests you – *poke*

Technical:

You may not interfere in any way with EA games or services, or the servers and networks needed to support them

You may not use software that damages, alters, or interrupts the EA Service on other computers or devices.

It is prohibited to carry out hacking attacks, hack in any way, or upload viruses, worms, Trojans or other malware towards EA and other users.

You may not misuse in-game features to obtain support or submit a complaint, or send false notifications to EA employees.

It is prohibited to use any automation programs, including those used to extract any data.

Do not modify files or other parts of EA games or software. Yes, yes, this is why EA prohibits you from using mods. Moreover, many mods fall into this category, for example Project Reality – the first project of future Squad developers, which is a modification for Battlefield 2 .

It is prohibited to use and distribute prohibited software (that is, cheats, macros, etc.), as well as bugs and vulnerabilities of the game, but only those that give you an advantage.

You may not use or distribute counterfeit EA Software or Data, including Virtual Currency. Here, as I understand it, by fake we mean pirated versions of games, because it would be stupid to ban everyone who is similar to the same Battlefield because of the strange wording of “fake”.

You are prohibited from hiding your location or using EA Services in a region where you are not located. There is generally a rather strange wording in the origi, but here I tried as simply as possible and as I personally understood.

You may not use EA Services (including games) in a country whose laws prohibit the company from providing its services.

Non-technical:

It is prohibited to violate applicable laws, rules and regulations. In addition, section 8 specifically states that it is prohibited to violate the user agreement.

It is prohibited to spam in any form and publish messages for purposes other than personal communication. For example: "I don’t like this game, buy Call of Duty".

Do not use obscene or offensive language, excessive emotion (use of capital letters only), spamming, excessive messaging, or pressing the enter key multiple times.

It is prohibited to threaten, harass or intimidate the player. The term “cause trouble” may not be clear to some, but to put it simply, these are some kind of attacks, for example, attacks such as that a person plays poorly, discrimination, etc.

You may not create User Submissions https://rise-casino.uk/login/ or organize or participate in an activity, group, or guild that is inappropriate, offensive, or affecting (i.e., hurts the feelings of) any group of people.

It is prohibited to publish, upload or distribute someone’s user and other data without their permission in EA games and services. For example: you are playing a game, in the chat they ask for your friend’s name, and you say it yourself. Essentially you have disclosed confidential user information.

You are prohibited from publishing or distributing illegal content in any way in EA games or services. As I understand it, this implies various kinds of links to illegal software, disclosure of some secret, etc.

Any attempts to obtain information from EA users about their passwords, account details or any other private information are prohibited. This is a rather complex rule, because it takes into account both the sale of an account and attempts by attackers to steal it.

You may not use payment methods or refund methods to access or purchase games or other paid content for fraudulent purposes, without EA’s permission, or otherwise as part of a criminal or other illegal activity. As I understand it, purchases with a card other than yours, purchases in another region, activation of an illegal (stolen) key, etc. are prohibited.

It is prohibited to participate in fraudulent activity, commit other actions aimed at suppressing competition or facilitate their commission. I tried to simplify, but I realized that it was easier to just copy and explain with an example. I thought for a long time, because even with an example I couldn’t really understand the meaning of the rule, but in the end I came to understand. This rule separately considers raising ranks in a competitive ranked game using a different, more skillful person and other methods, which allows more experienced players with almost a top rating to get to low-skill people with the first ranks. I personally don’t remember this kind of game from EA, but in Counter Strike 2 this problem still exists and was even aggravated due to the division of ranks by map. I don’t know how noticeable it is now due to the new ranking system, but when the old system was in place, you could easily notice a booster (a person who raises the rank at the request of the account owner) on the low rank.

You may not sell, buy, share, trade, or otherwise transfer your EA Account.

You may not use the EA Services in any service not controlled or authorized by EA. Quite an extensive rule that generally affects any kind of services, for example a computer club, if they are not permitted.

When creating and editing a pseudonym (nickname), it is prohibited to use someone else’s real name and it is recommended not to use your real name.

You are prohibited from engaging in any activity that materially disrupts a peaceful, fair and respectful gaming environment. In simple words – don’t be toxic.

You may not use user information publicly available on any EA Services for any purpose unrelated to it, including attempting to identify the account owner.

It is prohibited to participate or encourage participation in any prohibited activity described in the User Agreement.

So, I think we figured out the rules, but. What are the consequences for violating these same rules?? Let’s take a look.

Sanctions or other measures are those measures that are provided for violation of the user agreement. EA has the right to apply them independently, without taking into account your opinion, that is, if, in the opinion of this very company, you violate the agreement, then measures will be taken immediately. Only after a penalty is issued does the player have the right to appeal.

What can EA do for us?? What kind of measures are these?? Well, let’s look at them:

Termination of access, also known as account deactivation – in fact, “termination” and “deactivation” are different terms within the contract, but they are related. When EA stops access to its services and games, it deactivates your account. In this case, your nickname is freed, that is, another user can choose it. Termination also terminates all licenses. In addition, depending on the severity of the violation, other accounts may also be deactivated. EA may also terminate the Agreement, which will result in the above events, but sections 5, 8-9, 11-15 will continue to apply even after termination, and section 15 itself is subject to a more "broad interpretation".

Ban account – temporary or permanent blocking. EA will not delete your account or take away your games (more on that below), but they may suspend access to your account. Interestingly, your account can also be banned to prevent unauthorized access, and not just to punish you as a user.

Ban by IP and/or hardware (ban by MAC address) – a ban that blocks access not to your account (although not a fact, because they can ban you along with it), but access to EA services and games from your device. The method of such a ban is not described, but I can safely assume that it is a ban either by IP or by MAC address, but most likely the latter, because many do not have a public IP address, which means the outgoing IP can change and even be tied to a gateway with a huge number of local users, and there is only one MAC address and it is tied to the user’s network interface, but this can be done simply by purchasing a network card or changing the IP through a tool such as VPN. Only now, I think, this can only lead to even greater consequences, because the company does not describe what unauthorized access is in its understanding and may consider such actions to violate the user agreement.

Revocation of EA Rights – quite a broad term, but very simple. Remember the point about revoking licenses? Technically EA can take away your license, but revocation is a similar sanction. Let’s go back and remember that the license gives us the right to use and so on, which does not violate the user agreement. But here’s an interesting point: you may have a license, but the right under it is taken away. EA has the right, as a sanction, to take away your right to play, additionally. content and so on, thereby blocking your access to the game FOREVER.

Ban games on account, by IP/MAC – I don’t see the point in describing it, these are the same actions described above on the topic of bans, but applied not to the entire account, but to a game or service (for example, a forum). The game is not taken away from you. Ban either temporary, or forever.

Warning – the lightest punishment. EA will simply warn you and ask you not to do this again.

It is important to remember that all of the above penalties, except termination, increase subsequent penalties and the chance of account deactivation increases.

Other interesting things

In fact, we have already discussed the most important points, but we would like, as in the case of the fan fact about Japan, to describe here other banal and non-trivial sections of the EULA.

Well, let’s start with the fact that EA has completely removed Origin from the user agreement as a client application for downloading and running games. Now all this, including license verification, is handled exclusively by EA App. An interesting aspect of this whole point may be the announcement of other applications, because EA directly says that the functions of the EA App can be performed by another application, which in the future may be released to replace the current one.

Each game has a serial number and it is associated with only one account, but nothing prevents you from launching the game from another computer. To do this, EA introduces a condition that the user can launch the game from 5 different devices in 24 hours. If you exceed this limit, then you violate the user agreement

We already know that EA can take away the right to use or the license that gives this right. Well, EA uses various technical means to combat cheaters and pirates, and if facts of unauthorized copying or use of cheats are detected, the company revokes the license by terminating its validity.

In addition, the anti-cheat tool, while playing online of course, can track and collect your gameplay, device RAM, running processes, visual data, messaging and file storage. In addition, these tools are also used to ensure compliance with the Code of Conduct.

Remember the stories with NFS: Most Wanted or the first The Crew from Ubisoft? Well, when they were completely cut out of the store? Well, in the EULA there is a clause about such moments. EA may terminate access to EA Services, which includes almost everything as we remember, but the company undertakes to give a month’s notice about this. After termination, the company ceases to support the game in any way, that is, no updates or guarantees of operation.

By the way, where do you live?? If you are from countries of the EEA (European Economic Area), the United Kingdom or Switzerland, then EA is committed to presenting the services at a professional level, and if you are not from these countries, then. Here according to the canon of free software, only the games are not free at all, they are stupid “AS IS”. I took this fact from a huge section with responsibility, so it will be easier for me not even to take a screenshot of the original, but to stupidly throw a link – *poke*.

By the way, again about the location features. If you live in Quebec Province (Canada), Russia, Switzerland, Brazil, Mexico, EEA Member States, United Kingdom and Republic of Korea, then you can sleep peacefully. If not, then let’s take it in order.

First of all, if disputes arise between you and the company, you or the company undertake to resolve them within a month (in Australia there are exceptions, but they are all related to violation of copyright or license rights). If this fails, then you or EA have the right to file a claim in arbitration court. There is only one point: if you live in the USA, you can apply to any of your district arbitration courts, and if from Japan, then only to the court of San Mateo County, California. As you understand, by doing this the company complicates the resolution of all disputes through the courts if you are not from the USA, but not from the states described above, where Section 15 does not apply.

Ok, so we are from the USA, we couldn’t come to an agreement with EA and decided to go to court. What awaits us? Well, look, if we find more people who disagree with EA, who also could not agree, then we do not have the right to file a class or representative lawsuit, and the trial cannot be conducted in the format of a jury trial. These types of courts and actions are permitted only in countries where section 15 does not apply, that is, in the above.

Ok, the trial is over. Now let’s talk about the consequences. The agreement does not say what will happen if EA wins, but it does say what will happen if we win. If we are awarded an award in an amount greater (in monetary value) than EA’s last written offer made before the Company submitted its written submissions to the arbitrator, then EA agrees to pay on top of the award 150% of that same amount, not to exceed $5,000, and to pay all litigation (arbitration) damages. This is another small part of the topic about the trial, you can read it in full here – *poke*

Well, the last interesting point is that if you are a PlayStation user and are in the jurisdiction of its subsidiary Sony Interactive Entertainment Network Europe Limited in the European region (as we know, each company has its own division of regions, so it’s not a fact that this is about EU countries), then you are buying a game and concluding a user agreement not with EA, but with the European Sony.

Honestly, I thought that this would be a microblog, but it turned out that I’ve been writing it since July 24, although I wasn’t in a particular hurry, and it itself is far from small: both in the literal and figurative sense, because studying the intricacies of the agreement is also labor-intensive, so I ask you to become my plus sign and give me a plus. Well, if you like my blogs, then subscribe and don’t miss a single one. I still have a lot planned for you:

Well it’s time to say goodbye. Below you can read past blogs you may have missed. Good luck everyone and BYE!

Read also

Best comments

Well not really. If you work in an office and work as a system administrator, technician, etc., then you have to read these licenses every time. Because of this, I developed the habit of just reading the user agreement.

For the plus – thank you!

Thank you, it was interesting. For about 10 years now I’ve been dreaming of somehow studying the issue. Somehow I learned.

Well not really. If you work in an office and work as a system administrator, technician, etc., then you have to read these licenses every time

Fact, but not always – I myself was an office-server system administrator from 2011 to 2018. Depends on the office.

Well here I am. Maybe, but you know that they can come with a check and check for the presence of unlicensed software ever installed. In general, at work I only use free software or software that allows commercial use (if it’s not office software, fortunately there are licenses).

Regarding something else that is not always suitable – GPL, BSD and MIT licenses, because their conditions do not change, which means there is no point in reading them if you already know the conditions (except for BSD, but more on that below). With Apache it is sometimes necessary, because the author, in rare cases, can insert an unpleasant clause. BSD can also add its own conditions, but there cannot be restrictions on use, because this violates the very principle of BSD licenses.

Well, we also have a lot of commercial ones, but if it’s for yourself or network tasks, then you have to use the free one. In general, I’m not particularly complaining, because you yourself understand that, in essence, we have no need for those programs that users have, and everything we need is free, especially xfreerdp, IPFW, OpenSSH and others.

Overall, yes. The community has long written a bunch of cool tools. Many of them are not usable by users, since they were written by those with IT skills for those with IT skills (at least those who know how the command line works with its syntax and where man is located), but nevertheless.

Why look for him?? If you are on Fryakh, usually all the programs you have installed run through the command man [prog], but it is worth noting that mans do not always help solve the problem. IPFW generally has two mana: the standard one (which you enter through man and is located on the man subdomain) and the new one, which is generally poorly written. In any case, if mana does not help, then the good old FreeBSD forum helps, because during the existence of Fryakha so many problems have accumulated that it is easier to find a solution on the forum.

You can finish reading it at any time)

Thanks for the constructiveness, but in general this is my style of writing. I’m not writing any scientific work here on Cyberleninka or something like that, which is why I don’t see any point in getting tired of it and writing about it. When I write blogs, I try to rely on communication with the reader, as Peter Lynch did (he didn’t ask the reader, but often addressed the reader). Some people like it, some don’t. I don’t force anyone to read this kind of text if they simply don’t like it.

As for the agreement – I wrote that I took a fairly light one to start with. If I wanted to take real evil, I would choose Gaijin EULA (yes, the Closers are not even close to what the Outsiders wrote for themselves), but I decided not to write even more text compared to the content of the blog. To be fair, the EA agreement is of interest within Japan, the USA and other countries that are not in the European region, because I don’t remember a single company that literally in the license forces you to spend the purchased donation.

Well, it’s worth reminding that here specifically I’m analyzing either fan facts, or basic information, or why you can get hit on the head and with what exactly. Many people, when they “buy” games, don’t even know why they can be banned, and then go to the forums or support to find out the reason. I often see how in the comments of. War Thunder public come with the question “Why was I banned??».

Thank you again for your rather detailed comment and rating. As part of the agreements, next time (and that will be someday) I’ll take something more interesting, but I’m unlikely to be able to do anything with the writings.

I put a plus.
But to be honest, this topic is so specific that it may be of interest mainly to lawyers and those who are hardcore fans of the Civil Code and, possibly, international law.

Well here I am. Maybe, but you know that they can come with a check and check for the presence of unlicensed software ever installed.

They can. And they came. You provide the purchased licenses in the form of a bunch of printouts and keys, taking everything out of the safe. Well, you go with them while they check the keys on the software.

In general, at work I only use free software or software that allows commercial use (if it’s not office software, fortunately there are licenses).

Where I worked there was a ton of commercial software =) But I also used junk software where possible.

BSD can also add its own conditions, but there cannot be restrictions on use, because this violates the very principle of BSD licenses.

Yes, that’s why I didn’t bother too much about this topic either.

Why look for him?? If you are on Fryakh, usually all the programs you have installed are run through the command man [program],

The average user doesn’t know this. He will be so scared of the command line that he will hide in a corner))) I wrote about such a case.

There are several hundred thousand lives already lived by people on the forum.

Ahh… I heard something about this and attempts to promote a law in the European Parliament that is aimed at appropriating the ownership of software purchased on the Internet. Scott’s problem is that he, like you, equates the license as a term from the EULA with the EULA itself, which is the real license according to the classification of software licenses. It’s just that in user agreements they write about other licenses, that is, licenses for providing use, when the main licenses for software are the agreements themselves.

Now I’ll try to explain everything simply and clearly. Previously, when you bought a disc for a console or Jewel with a game, it came with a license as a guarantee that the author would not be hit in the head by yellow liquid and would not take the program away from you as the author. A license is a document concluded in absentia between the developer, author, and end user on the terms of use, etc. Now game developers, and developers in general, in their closed self-written (made by them, usually called End-User License Agreement) licenses use the term “license” as a kind of right and it turns out that inside the license you have a differently interpreted license. Because of this, you decided to express your opinion about modifying the software, although if the author prohibits it, and its sources are protected by copyright, then you do not have the right due to the expanded concept of copyright. It is so advanced that even outside the software it occurs, for example, if you buy a pack of Lays and simply replace the chips inside with your own, and then sell it – this is a violation of copyright. The same with software, but more strictly due to the very flexible copyright law, because even after giving you a copy, he has the right to revoke it if there were no agreements with you. Because of this, it was invented to act as in the case of music, cinema and other creative works that have specific authors, that is, licenses were created, but not between the author and the company, but between the user and the developer. Because of this, we now have both free (public domain, permissive and copyleft) and proprietary (closed, usually presented in the form of signatures) licenses. I will repeat my take again that if everything was as Scott Ross says, then there would be no WTFPL license.

In addition, Scott himself says that if the EULA does not violate the law, then it is valid. What he cited as judicial practice is a direct violation of the law in the EULA, but not on the topic of property and copyright, but on the topic of patenting by mechanism and software. Still a controversial topic, because the same Warner Bros was able to patent the use of AI technologies like Nemesis in games. Usually they try to write EULA under a bunch of laws, the same example with EA and class action, where almost the entire European region, including the Russian Federation, has the right to collective protection in their arbitration courts

I would also like to add that agreements, including EA’s, usually do not include the term “service” in relation to games. They may be part of a self-proclaimed term like "EA Services", but this is not part of the service-as-a-service term.

I didn’t finish reading the blog either 🙁

Not true on my part or the legal side of the agreement? I simply summarized the content regarding games in the EA EULA and even attached the original text.

This is absolutely, fundamentally wrong, and it has been discussed for a long time, in reviews of laws, in thousands of disputes and comments, as well as in Ross Scott’s Game as a Service video.

Of course, I didn’t watch the video, but legally everything there is subtle and on the verge. The problem is that legally the agreements are similar to the same agreements for subscription services, like Microsoft 365 (ex-Office), in which you are given a license with the right to use a copy and, of course, conditions depending on the edition (package). The only major difference is the unlimited time. It’s the same with consoles: you only own the device, but along with it you get an unlimited time, revocable license with the right to use the software.

According to the laws of the vast majority of countries, REGARDLESS of what is written in the agreement, a purchased copy from EA, Steam or any other place is a copy of the game, (not a license) – your property, and you can do anything with it, including hacking and modifying it. (within the law of course).

This is where you are already wrong, because in many countries there is conditional compulsory licensing of software, and games have such. How does it manifest itself?? The fact is that for many, the software you make falls under copyright law and the author can show it to anyone who received a copy of it, even with his permission, and force him to either compensate or not use your program. Because of this, a software licensing process was invented, which provided at least some guarantee against sudden attacks by the software author and violation of copyright laws. If it were not so, then the WTFPL license, which de facto completely exempts software from copyright, would not exist. In addition, even if you are the owner of a copy, you are required to comply with the license that comes with it, especially if it is proprietary software, the source code of which remains with the developer. Even Richard Stallman at a certain point realized how difficult everything is legally with software and created his own free copyleft license (GNU GPL).

You can find more information about the principles of software licensing on the Internet or read on my blog, which I have attached below.

Even if you violate the rules of Steam and you are banned, then you have every right to demand money from them for this copy or demand to transfer it to a new account, if not through a request, then through the court. Until the law on property is rewritten in favor of corporations, the court in 100% of cases sides with the consumer.

Can you at least cite one case law regarding the ban of an account with paid games on Steam?? I got really interested.

To be honest, the material is rather weak, mainly due to the chosen convention, but it was also written in the manner of speaking with some friend in a discord chat, and not as a blog for the public.

"OK; I understand; eternal well-canations; essentially”, etc.d. – it’s just disgusting to read. So many words of parasites per unit of text is too much.

As for the chosen agreement – a rather boring piece of legal writing without any interesting points. Default I would say. But for the facepunchers, the authors of the Rastas, the very first clause in the agreement says “dont bi a dick”, or at least it was written. This paragraph quite succinctly describes the rules of conduct in growing up, that you can’t be toxic, take your mothers to the movies in a voice chat, draw dicks on signs and give yourself offensive nicknames.

One of the most interesting agreements in my opinion is from Blizzard (Blizzard products, not Activation-Blizzard. Vova and his campers) is literally a contract with the devil. Your account is not yours (unlike EA), just like the games. Absolutely everything related to the company’s intellectual property automatically belongs to the company, including yours, I mean not yours, but it’s more convenient to say that, clans or guilds created within the game and you cannot create a similar one in another project. Your characters in games, especially in WWII, can be deleted without announcing any reason. Even if you want to write a post mentioning something that belongs to Blizzard, for example on reddit, then this post is the property of Blizzard. Music or models inspired by the original? Cosplay? All this at the moment of creation is sent to the blizzard’s piggy bank. This is literally a contract with the devil and for its violation the company has the right not only to terminate the agreement, but even to carry out criminal prosecution. This is what was worth looking at as an introductory blog in the section. This is real evil written in legal word.

I don’t remember who, but just as a joke there was a clause in the agreement that when accepting the agreement, a person is obliged to record on camera how he sang the song and the absence of this recording, because you naturally did not read what you signed, can immediately lead to termination of the license.

Plus I delivered, but without pleasure.

Very interesting, thanks.

The fact is that you are actually making a purchase, but not a game, but a personal, limited, non-transferable, revocable and non-exclusive license to use the game.

Well, this is not America at all, all commercial “server” software is sold according to this scheme, database software, for example. Yes, even Windows is the same. No one complains that they do not “own” an instance of Oracle, for example, it is clear that a license is purchased for use for a certain period of time with additional licensing terms. From these extras. the conditions of this depend on the price, actually. And an additional license for support. EA simply sells perpetual licenses, which is rare for commercial software.

It’s more surprising to me that EA and others didn’t think of licensing their games by CPU cores, like Oracle, for example, or by GPU =)

Well, it’s also good that they don’t audit how you comply with the agreement, and don’t even require the installation of special. software included with Steam, which would monitor whether there are any violations on a specific host. Commercial software vendors do it.