EU judge rules people can resell downloable games

The Court of Justice of the European Union has ruled that people can resell their downloadable games, which may lead to changes in how services such as Steam sell their games.

While we have seen people resell console games on discs to others, the common theory is that games that were purely sold as a downloadable product could not have the same privilege. Now a judge for the Court of Justice of the European Union has ruled that downloadable games can be resold just like game discs.

Eurogamer reports that according to the ruling, "An author of software cannot oppose the resale of his 'used' licenses allowing the use of his programs downloaded from the internet." The court also ruled this condition applies even if the game or download services' End User License Agreement says otherwise.

The only catch with this ruling is that the previous owner of the game must make his or her copy "unusable at the time of resale". If they don't, they are in violation of copyright laws. There's no word as to how this could be enforced.

This court decision will apply to all of the countries in the European Union. There's no word if any game publishers, or the companies in charge of downloadable game services such as Valve's Steam division will appeal the ruling or change their EULA to comply with the court's decision.

Source: Eurogamer