lolcatnip

@lolcatnip@reddthat.com

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Ubisoft says you "cannot complain" it shut down The Crew because you never actually owned it, and you weren't "deceived" by the lack of an offline version⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  My point is they never have and never will.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Ubisoft says you "cannot complain" it shut down The Crew because you never actually owned it, and you weren't "deceived" by the lack of an offline version⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  I think Ubisoft is clearly in the wrong, but you’re not making a good case. You’re conflating very different meanings of the word “own”.

  In terms of legal ownership, only the copyright holder owns the intellectual property, including the right to distribute and license it. When a consumer “buys” a piece of media, they’re really just buying a perpetual license for their personal use of it. With physical media, the license is typically tied to whatever physical object (disc, book, ROM, etc.) is used to deliver the content, and you can transfer your license by transferring the physical media, but the license is still the important part that separates legal use from piracy.

  When you pirate something, you own the means to access it without the legal right to do so. So, in the case at hand, players still “own” the game in the same sense they would if they had pirated it. Ubisoft hasn’t revoked anyone’s physical access to the bits that comprise the game; what they’ve done is made that kind of access useless because the game relies on a service that Ubisoft used to operate.

  The real issue here is that Ubisoft didn’t make it clear what they were selling, and they may even have deliberately misrepresented it. Consumers were either not aware that playing the game required Ubisoft to operate servers for it, or they were misled regarding how long Ubisoft would operate the servers.

  Ultimately I think what consumers are looking for is less like ownership and more like a warranty, i.e. a promise that what they buy will continue to work for some period of time after they’ve bought it, and an obligation from the manufacturer to provide whatever services are necessary to keep that promise. Game publishers generally don’t offer any kind of warranty, and consumers don’t demand warranties, but consumers also tend to expect punishers to act as if their products come with a warranty. Publishers, of course, don’t want to draw attention to their lack of warranty, and will sometimes actively exploit that false perception that their products come with a perpetual warranty.

  I think what’s really needed is a very clear indication, at the point of purchase, of whether a game requires ongoing support from the publisher to be playable, along with a legally binding statement of how long they’ll provide support. And there should be a default warranty if none is clearly specified, like say 10 years from the point of purchase.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Ubisoft says you "cannot complain" it shut down The Crew because you never actually owned it, and you weren't "deceived" by the lack of an offline version⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Or, ownership itself is a service. Rights mean nothing if nobody enforces them, and that includes property rights.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨no words, much feelings⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Most of the time they don’t.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨no words, much feelings⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:
• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨no words, much feelings⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Spoken like someone who knows nothing about how apps work.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨no words, much feelings⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  A good filter can do wonders.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨I cannot tell you a way my life has genuinely gotten better since the advent of "smart" phones.⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Google Maps was life-changing.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨BACK IT UP⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  As much as I want psychedelics to be legal, I think putting RFK in charge of anything is far to high of a price to pay.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨‘Beyond failure’: WA teen loses legs at school-based work program.⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Not the economy, but “the economy”, i.e. corporate profits.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨It's been 30 years and I still can't get over the fact that the French word for "potatoes" is "ground apples." Have The French never had an apple?⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Also what I was taught in US Spanish classes.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Just Terrible⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Hate to break it to you, but almost every language uses 0-based indexing.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Just Terrible⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Mathematicians and computer scientists are natural enemies.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Badgers⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Badgers? We don’t need no stinking badgers!

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨THE DEMONS⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Or the Laundry series by Charles Stross.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Couple tried to sell baby for a 6-pack of beer and $1,000 at campground, police say⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I understand wanting to unload one. Not so much the part where someone pays to be the recipient.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Couple tried to sell baby for a 6-pack of beer and $1,000 at campground, police say⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Yeah but they misspelled it, so they lose some points there.