Subject: A lost cause worth fighting (or: Finally a good reason for the continued existence of GameStop)


So, some idealistic schmuck is suing Gamestop (a US games retailer),
claiming it presented the sale of digital games as... well, actual
sales rather than just an opportunity to license them.*

It's not a lawsuit that's going to go anywhere, of course. I think the
lawyers are going to argue (and the judges will rule) that there
probably is enough awareness that digital games are just licensed, and shrink-wrap (or click-wrap) EULAs make it clear anyway, and anyway...
you're not going to get very much blood from the sinking stone that is GameStop.

But regardless of the caselaw and the history of software licensing, I
still think this is a case worth fighting. Because as software
increasingly becomes part of, well everything, it becomes increasingly
easy for manufacturers and developers to claim that the customer
doesn't actually own anything. That game? Just licensed. Your car you
just bought? No, you can't turn it on if you don't agree to the
software license. Your toaster? That's not really yours either. It's
an area of law that needs some serious revision, and the more
awareness the public has of the problem, the more likely we'll get
some new legislation protecting our rights.

[Not to say those changes are VERY likely to happen
anytime soon... but if nobody knows about the problem,
the miniscule likelihood becomes zero.]

So fight the good fight, Plaintiff Jake Weber. You'll lose, but it's
not all for nothing. Sooner or later, people will demand some real
change and we'll remember and thank you for your failed efforts then.




* article https://topclassactions.com/lawsuit-settlements/lawsuit-news/gamestop-class-action-alleges-digital-games-misrepresented-as-purchases/





--- PyGate Linux v1.5.2
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

Subject: Re: A lost cause worth fighting (or: Finally a good reason for the continued existence of GameStop)

On 1/21/2026 1:57 PM, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

So, some idealistic schmuck is suing Gamestop (a US games retailer),
claiming it presented the sale of digital games as... well, actual
sales rather than just an opportunity to license them.*

It's not a lawsuit that's going to go anywhere, of course. I think the lawyers are going to argue (and the judges will rule) that there
probably is enough awareness that digital games are just licensed, and shrink-wrap (or click-wrap) EULAs make it clear anyway, and anyway...
you're not going to get very much blood from the sinking stone that is GameStop.

But regardless of the caselaw and the history of software licensing, I
still think this is a case worth fighting. Because as software
increasingly becomes part of, well everything, it becomes increasingly
easy for manufacturers and developers to claim that the customer
doesn't actually own anything. That game? Just licensed. Your car you
just bought? No, you can't turn it on if you don't agree to the
software license. Your toaster? That's not really yours either. It's
an area of law that needs some serious revision, and the more
awareness the public has of the problem, the more likely we'll get
some new legislation protecting our rights.

[Not to say those changes are VERY likely to happen
anytime soon... but if nobody knows about the problem,
the miniscule likelihood becomes zero.]

So fight the good fight, Plaintiff Jake Weber. You'll lose, but it's
not all for nothing. Sooner or later, people will demand some real
change and we'll remember and thank you for your failed efforts then.

* article https://topclassactions.com/lawsuit-settlements/lawsuit-news/gamestop-class-action-alleges-digital-games-misrepresented-as-purchases/

Along those lines, since you mentioned cars anyways, there are already lawsuits teeing up because auto makers are claiming that all that
diagnostic data they are routinely collecting about your car and having
your car sent back to them are exclusively THEIR property and the car
"owner" has no legal right to that data.

Part of why the car makers are taking that stance is because that data
is more and more something that a mechanic working on your car has to
have access to in order TO work on the car. So it is a way of forcing
you to use their monopolistic dealer service departments to even do
something as simple as change the oil. (Well, at least that used to be simple. I have no idea how complicated they've made it now.)

--
I've done good in this world. Now I'm tired and just want to be a cranky
dirty old man.

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.2
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

Subject: Re: A lost cause worth fighting (or: Finally a good reason for the continued existence of GameStop)

Dimensional Traveler <dtravel@sonic.net> looked up from reading the
entrails of the porn spammer to utter "The Augury is good, the signs
say:

<snip>

Along those lines, since you mentioned cars anyways, there are already >lawsuits teeing up because auto makers are claiming that all that
diagnostic data they are routinely collecting about your car and having
your car sent back to them are exclusively THEIR property and the car >"owner" has no legal right to that data.

Part of why the car makers are taking that stance is because that data
is more and more something that a mechanic working on your car has to
have access to in order TO work on the car. So it is a way of forcing
you to use their monopolistic dealer service departments to even do >something as simple as change the oil. (Well, at least that used to be >simple. I have no idea how complicated they've made it now.)

Well considering some smaller Japanese cars have the engine shoe-horned
in so tightly you have to pull the engine out to change the spark plugs
(at least one bank of them,) I imagine they could have made it very
complicated indeed.

Car Executive: Hey, what if we don't put a drain plug on the car, so
the only way to change the oil is to remove the engine, flip it over and
drain it through the filler pipe?

Car CEO: What an excellent idea, implement it immediately.

Xocyll
--
I don't particularly want you to FOAD, myself. You'll be more of
a cautionary example if you'll FO And Get Chronically, Incurably,
Painfully, Progressively, Expensively, Debilitatingly Ill. So
FOAGCIPPEDI. -- Mike Andrews responding to an idiot in asr

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.2
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

Subject: Re: A lost cause worth fighting (or: Finally a good reason for the continued existence of GameStop)

Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote at 21:57 this Wednesday (GMT):

So, some idealistic schmuck is suing Gamestop (a US games retailer),
claiming it presented the sale of digital games as... well, actual
sales rather than just an opportunity to license them.*

It's not a lawsuit that's going to go anywhere, of course. I think the lawyers are going to argue (and the judges will rule) that there
probably is enough awareness that digital games are just licensed, and shrink-wrap (or click-wrap) EULAs make it clear anyway, and anyway...
you're not going to get very much blood from the sinking stone that is GameStop.

you cant get any blood from a stone :P

But regardless of the caselaw and the history of software licensing, I
still think this is a case worth fighting. Because as software
increasingly becomes part of, well everything, it becomes increasingly
easy for manufacturers and developers to claim that the customer
doesn't actually own anything. That game? Just licensed. Your car you
just bought? No, you can't turn it on if you don't agree to the
software license. Your toaster? That's not really yours either. It's
an area of law that needs some serious revision, and the more
awareness the public has of the problem, the more likely we'll get
some new legislation protecting our rights.

[Not to say those changes are VERY likely to happen
anytime soon... but if nobody knows about the problem,
the miniscule likelihood becomes zero.]

So fight the good fight, Plaintiff Jake Weber. You'll lose, but it's
not all for nothing. Sooner or later, people will demand some real
change and we'll remember and thank you for your failed efforts then.

* article https://topclassactions.com/lawsuit-settlements/lawsuit-news/gamestop-class-action-alleges-digital-games-misrepresented-as-purchases/

Cheers, things are starting to get a lot worse.
--
user <candycane> is generated from /dev/urandom

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.2
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)