Yarr citizens of the high seas! The Stop Killing Games movement is still ongoing and we’ve recently had a second wind. It’s within reach!
We’re all lovers of media in here, and games currently have no safeguard that guarantees that they won’t be locked down long after being released and abandoned. If crackers help us, they can still be played long into the future, but many times there isn’t such a possibility, specially in multiplayer games.
This initiative seeks to change that by mainly:
- Disallowing planned obsolesce in paid video games. (Ex: By disallowing phone-home based DRM after the game reaches end of life. Like in Ubisoft’s The Crew)
- Ensuring that paid multiplayer games can still be reasonably played long into the future. (Ex: By releasing relevant server hosting software)
If you didn’t sign yet, there is only one month left. Tell your friends too.
Do you live in the EU?
- You can sign it here: https://eci.ec.europa.eu/045/public/#/screen/home
Do you live in the UK?
- You can also sign a different one here: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/702074/
Do you live elsewhere or would like to know more?
Disclaimer: Reminder post, sort of relevant since piracy movements have much to benefit from this initiative.
Have a fine day!
Edit: 2k signatures left - The initiative website is having a fit, we’re too popular!
No, not how petitions work in the EU. Nominally it means they can force the EU parliament to bring underway legislation concering the topic, albeit there isn’t really a control mechanism for this. But say they do it anyways lest they lose even more credibility, considering games despite having existed for at least 50 years at this point are foreign objects to basically everyone that is the leftovers in the EU Parliament Ubisoft or whatever is gonna send two lobbyists and it ends up at at some sort of EU law that says “under reasonable circumstances video games should have to be playable after the copyright holder abandons service except if it costs them any money”
If that’s true, why have all the other Actions failed? This is like the 10th(?) time they’ve tried and the furthest they’ve gotten is the EU saying that it is up to member nations to address.
And going further with that, all you need is 1 million signatures to change EU law? There are 449 million people in the EU. That would mean that 0.22% of your population gets to dictate what laws are made for the other 448 million people. Coming from a country that is quickly becoming authoritarian and non-democratic, that seems fairly non-democratic.
Cause it’s nominal and “bring underway legislation” is a catch all term. Petitions to democratic parliaments are bullshit, why would any of them care about - as you point out - a single issue thaat 0,22% of the population signed up for?
They might have to have it as a point of order for the next meeting, in which they all decide “nah, no legislation needed, shit’s fine” and be done with it. That’s how most petitions go, anyways. You cannot force a law into existence by petitions.
Exactly like you said. I think this whole thing is really good intentioned, but its just not feasible. I think if people don’t want companies to do this sort of thing, they should just stop buying crap from those companies. Maybe not quite accurate, but its like crack-addicts complaining about the quality of their crack to their dealers. The dealer knows they aren’t going to stop buying crack, so why would they change anything.