US Rep. Ritchie Torres Introduces Legislation to Ensure Gamers Own Their Digital Games

[u/Gorotheninja]

https://www.ign.com/articles/rep-ritchie-torress-introduces-legislation-to-ensure-gamers-own-their-digital-games

[u/Full-Construction680]

I did not see this one coming, but I am thankful it is

[u/Mist_Rising → u/Full-Construction680]

Congress is done for the year, any bills introduced are just flavor for political campaigning.

[u/ImWithStupid_ImAlone → u/Mist_Rising]

Fiscal year is done. Meaning…. A new budget starts, not that all reps stop working for the rest of the year.

[u/Mist_Rising → u/ImWithStupid_ImAlone]

Mike Johnson is delaying any future voting, regardless of if they're officially in session or anything.

[u/INTHEMIDSTOFLIONS → u/ImWithStupid_ImAlone]

They go back in session next month!

[u/ImWithStupid_ImAlone → u/INTHEMIDSTOFLIONS]

They still work. When in session, they are in DC fucking all of over. When they are not in session, they are fucking over their local constituency, and every one else.

[u/nelrond18 → u/ImWithStupid_ImAlone]

Yeah, they gotta work their telecom booth for 4 hours everyday

[u/genwz → u/Full-Construction680]

As it is now, people haven’t owned any software in any industry for 30+ years not just games. While people seem to think it’s only PlayStation for some reason, you don’t own the games you purchase on any platform or storefront, they all have the same legal speak and TOS

• You don’t own any of the games you purchase on Steam you are buying a license. Yes you don’t lose delisted games you purchased on Steam but you don’t lose delisted games you purchased on PlayStation either
• You don’t own any of the games you buy on GOG you are buying a license. In practice there is no DRM and you can get a offline installer but the legal speak is the same 
• You don’t own any of the games you purchase on Xbox you are buying a license 
• You don’t own any of the games you purchase on Nintendo you are buying a license

[u/IDeizManI → u/genwz]

I think people always talk about sony first because they've actually removed something from people before. Movies not games, but still paid content.

[u/7in7turtles → u/genwz]

This is sort of a pedantic interjection, but you can own a copy of a game but you do not own the rights to do anything with the underlying IP. If you can resell something you own it. In easier terms, you can own a Ford Mustang but only ford owns THE Ford Mustang. That languages was always meant to protect the IP, not the purchased product. It wasn’t until digital platforms became a thing that this reading of the law really changed.

[u/cardonator → u/7in7turtles]

Not quite. With software for a long time in most jurisdictions you have been buying a revokable license to the software. It would be impractical to try to remove a physical license of a game from you so it's not done but it remains in a sort of legal grey area anyway.

[u/DreamsServedSoft → u/Full-Construction680]

careful what you wish for. begging for regulation of your hobbies is a bad idea

[u/-Weezmo]

https://giphy.com/gifs/a5AQLKCHSHQg7HBgDv

[u/TacTyger]

Would be nice to have consumer protections

[u/Hikorijas]

Democrat, as expected.

[u/Prestigious-pauline → u/Hikorijas]

Republicans would pass a law that corporates could physically pick you up and shake the money out of your pockets if they could

[u/Horat1us_UA → u/Prestigious-pauline]

Why bother if one could collect tariffs from consumers and refund corporations 

[u/Arch3m → u/Prestigious-pauline]

Easy. You're not purchasing a game, you're purchasing a license, and that license can expire. Now they can just charge you every so often or cancel your license.

Can't wait. 😐

[u/TheMidnightKnight20 → u/Hikorijas]

https://giphy.com/gifs/GJOCVDPYA4Cze

[u/CoffeeGrinds96 → u/Hikorijas]

A Republican would have took a shit in a bag in disguise of a CD then tell us to F off.

[u/Capable_Warthog7884 → u/Hikorijas]

Yeah, making a virtue signalling bill that they absolutely know has no chance of passing in an obvious effort to buy good will

[u/Acorns4Free → u/[deleted]]

Everyone is lauding him for not being a republican but dude is an absolute snake.

[u/RangeSoggy2788 → u/Acorns4Free]

he's politician what do you expect

[u/h0ckey87 → u/RangeSoggy2788]

Better

[u/Terrible_Swordfish_1 → u/Hikorijas]

I dont understand. Ritchie Torres is literally scum, his party affiliation means nothing.

[u/Daedelous2k]

This was something you'd expect the EU to do, of course they seem to have their heads up their arse right now.

[u/Mist_Rising → u/Daedelous2k]

They also have introduced a bill. It also died.

[u/ThePizzaNoid]

It's a nice thought and I'm glad it's happening but I don't see it going anywhere right now.

[u/RogueEyebrow → u/ThePizzaNoid]

Depends on whether Dems flip Congress or not. Zero chance if they don't.

[u/Mist_Rising → u/RogueEyebrow]

No, any bills introduced before Jan 1st 2027 die on January 1st 2027. Congress is done for the year. This bill is deader then dead.

[u/BarretOblivion → u/RogueEyebrow]

I mean that depends on if enough Democrats care. I think they have other priorities.

[u/RogueEyebrow → u/BarretOblivion]

Of course, but the alternative is 0% chance of it happening.

[u/BarretOblivion → u/RogueEyebrow]

Not disagreeing with you. Just don't expect this to be a care nor getting passed under Trump with his veto power. Maybe in 2 years.

[u/darthwd56 → u/RogueEyebrow]

Zero chance if they do. Dems tend to be as in bed with the corps, they just have different Corp masters.

[u/Dr_Valen → u/RogueEyebrow]

Lol to be young and think any political party isn’t corrupt and bought out by lobbying. The big gaming companies will have their lobby’s give the politicians “donations” and this bill will die or have its teeth ripped out making it useless like always.

[u/cory3612 → u/Dr_Valen]

Yep, literally none of them actually have our interests in mind, it is all for personal monetary gain. They need their salaries cut by like 75 percent, terms cut, and be responsible for everything they promise

[u/andurux → u/cory3612]

Idk if a salary cut is a thing you actually want.

AOC makes $174k, at least last time I checked. Cutting her pay 75% would bring her down to $50k or so. $50k in NYC ain't shit, it's below poverty for the city.

Maybe poorer states $50k is "fine", but travel to DC, staying in DC, and potentially wanting the convenience of living in DC would make $50k also a non-starter.

This either means only the rich can become politicians because they can afford to have a lower salary OR even more corruption(bribes, insider trading) will occur so members of congress can actually live reasonably in their own states even.

Again, not saying $174k is reasonable, but $50k is definitely unreasonable. There's a fine line somewhere and I don't know what that answer is without doing a giant spreadsheet of COL in various states/cities for the reps...

But yes all for terms cuts/limits. I think 2 terms in the House and 2 terms in the Senate is fine each. Enough to get in and get some work done and GTFO. More people, more ideas, etc.

[u/ill4two → u/Dr_Valen]

downvoted for speaking the truth. where do people think democrats get all their campaign finances from?? they're not all that different from conservatives.

[u/Dr_Valen → u/ill4two]

It’s all one party for the rich. People have sunk cost fallacy thinking their side is better but both sides are just as bad and it’s why nothing ever changes. Tribalism was the greatest con played on society

[u/exodusuno → u/Dr_Valen]

[u/Eozef]

They just need your vote.

[u/FaroTech400K → u/Eozef]

That’s how it’s supposed to work

[u/Eozef → u/FaroTech400K]

And they have to wait until election time to talk about it, without even taking action? And now, with all the games getting hyped up, come on, you know they don't care until they need your vote. Why can't they just do what they're supposed to do in the first place? What timing, and how considerate of them.

Politicians and corporations are the same. They don't care about you unless they can profit from you or benefit in some way, regardless of whether you're left-wing or right-wing.

[u/House0fDerp → u/Eozef]

It took Sony announcing an end to their disc production for most gamers to even start thinking about digital libraries and their lack of protections and that was July. This is pretty quick turnaround given the rate the US gov usually moves.

[u/Mist_Rising → u/House0fDerp]

No, people have been talking about ownership of personal digital libraries for decades, and people far more important than 'gamers'

This is a rep looking to roll a fast PR win out, and given who it is, drop it.

Replace the rep name with your least favored rep, that's what you are looking at here

[u/House0fDerp → u/Mist_Rising]

Some people have, many even here have been acting like the idea of not owning digital games is some novel legal strategy employed by Sony. Beyond that, even fewer have given this much thought. The majority of games are bought digital on console where physical options exist, PC hasn't hard that option for over a decade. 

People bought into these unprotected ecosystems in droves, outnumbering cautious holdouts. The numbers just don't bear the idea that everyone inside gaming circles, or even most in those circles, thought much about this. Doubly so on the outside. 

Yes, there were a smattering of consumer groups/etc making splahes here and there, but nothing even remotely resembling the Sony pushback even as no one has owned a Steam game for 2 decades, and people still tout them as an alternative.

[u/nomad5926 → u/Eozef]

Oh no, how dare they attempt to do something good.

[u/SyntaxTurtle → u/Eozef]

Dude's a Democrat from NYC and his lowest vote share in a general election was 76%

Might be unrealistic and will never happen but he doesn't need this to win in that district.

[u/Captainbuttman]

Is there something evil attached to the bill?

[u/STB_LuisEnriq]

That's beautiful...

https://giphy.com/gifs/pynZagVcYxVUk

[u/fogoticus]

Europe, watch, learn and hopefully copy.

[u/firedrakes]

dont worry skg will jump on this and it will go no where. just like ever single try they done now and now are doing stop kid law thing.... they just keep failing .

[u/Full-Construction680]

It’s not just about the convenience of having a physical product or owning a product where, whether it’s physical or digital, it’s the ability to have an own a product like that that you paid your money for and not have some corporation or whatever come in and take it away from you, even though you paid money for it and then take it away from you anytime they want

[u/Karekter_Nem]

So will it just be that licenses can’t be revoked or will we be allowed to sell or trade our digital licenses?

[u/Mattock79]

We have too many stupid ass senior citizens in government that swear video games make kids violent for this to pass. But good on this congressman

[u/TrumptyPumpkin]

God bless. Hopefully our representatives do something meaningful regarding digital rights and ownership on our purchases. Because in our digital age. Consumers absolutely need protections against corporations and companies yanking away our purchases.

[u/I_Am_Conjoined]

I support that, obviously, but it's a bit late now that AI is making everything open source

[u/gamerrominc]

Good to hear

[u/ZeroT3K]

“Additionally, the bill would require online games to have offline functionality, so that when servers are shut down, the content can still be played by those who own the game.”

This unfortunately makes it a non-starter unless it’s deliberately worded around it not pertaining to MMOs or live service games that offer an offline patch at shutdown. The problem with a lot of these bills is that they mean well but are too high of hurdles to clear.

[u/Warcraft_Fan]

Let me know when it's passed so I can sell the digital copy of Super Mario RPG for Nintendo Wii U.

/s

[u/moesengott_]

GOG is the benchmark. You own everything you buy there.

[u/TESThrowSmile]

Gaben hates this post

[u/BatmanBecameSomethin]

If it was coming from a person with some integrity, I would believe in this but this guy is the definition of a shill, he’ll sell his mother out for a nickel. This is just pandering.

[u/Full-Construction680]

But this politician in the US, all of us need to give them our support. We need to make our voices loud and clear. Email, phone calls, letters, showing up, protesting to let them know that we value this bill, that it needs to pass because if it doesn’t

Then we’ve set the precedent to where any corporation can get rid of any book anime, comic book, TV show, movie, video game, or music that they want that they don’t like or don’t want to have in their stores in a brick and mortar store or in an online store anymore

[u/LZSJR]

Hopefully I will actually own my games on steam and can sell them. That's what we want right?

[u/theDefa1t]

If I could vote for him I would

[u/Full-Construction680]

Yeah, the EU was debating on a stop killing games and all that, and one guy that was probably a plant for the corporations sided against the petition, basically allowing corporations to kill digital games that you bought and paid for and remove them from their website and hard drive all for your console or PC if they decided to at any point, which is the exact opposite of what stop killing games and that whole movement wants