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MIK0: ...Also, users should never lose content they purchased.
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MarkoH01: In fact this would probably be against the law because the bonus parts where part of the contract. Hopefully this is just a mistake which will be corrected soon.
When you buy something, you buy something, it's yours as a whole, period.
There is no way you can be stripped by small parts of the initial buy.

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DyNaer: I'm not an expert in laws, but that doesn't sound good
You don't have to be "expert in law", this is basic common sense, it's like 1+1=2 easy.
Nobody can trash your property right by taking away bits from it. No matter if its physical or digital.
And if there are "laws" that permit these kind of bad practices then those laws are obviously and fundamentally wrong and must be changed ASAP.

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yogsloth: Am I really going to hire a lawyer and sue somebody in one or more foreign countries over this? Are you?
Right now, the digital goods market is new, like the old wild wild west where everybody can do almost anything and get away with it. Consumer rights are trashed on a daily basis.
I have no doubt that this will be solved in the future (hopefully sooner than later), it can't go like this. It's preposterous, it's nonsense.
So yea, suing really helps in speeding up the process of implementing/fixing/changing laws in the digital goods market/domain.
Post edited February 04, 2015 by mobutu
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Laserschwert: I guess now it's "With free bonus content (while supplies last)" ;-)
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omega64: It's not like that's a new thing.
On GOG it is.
I'm not sure if it is a decision by GOG what to take away from the customers or whether the rightholders made that decision.
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Laserschwert: On GOG it is.
Nope.
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Laserschwert: On GOG it is.
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Grargar: Nope.
Thanks you saving me time searching. ;P
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Laserschwert: On GOG it is.
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Grargar: Nope.
I wasn't talking about GOG removing stuff. Of course that has happened before. I was jut joking about the fact that digital goodies come in limited supplies. Ah well.
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mrkgnao: They know when you purchased the game, but they probably don't have the logic to "hide" a specific bonus based on comparing that date to the date of the bonus removal. This logic is what I referred to as the "bit".

You can either:
1) Perform the logic on-the-fly, every time a user clicks on the game (slower, but requires less memory)
2) Perform the logic once and remember it in a "bit" (faster, but requires more memory)

So much for software engineering 101.
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HypersomniacLive: OK, I see now.

I'm inclined to think that if extras get removed due to this, then GOG is clearly overstepping and not giving a flying kite that they do. I'm seriously going to have to see what EU law says about this.

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MarkoH01: There are some things you CAN exclude via special terms even if they are normally included and some you cannot so it is not THAT easy.

[...]
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HypersomniacLive: Not sure I know about this. Could you elaborate? Specifically how that can apply here?
For example in employment law there are some things which you could change via work contract and some which you cannot because they are above all (like minimum wage i.e.). The same thing goes for some of the laws in business law. Unfortunately I cannot give you an example which would match this special case because in GOGs case the whole situation is a bit different because of the specific kind of the goods GOG does sell. This is also the problem why I cannot just look into my books and find out if what GOG did is against the law or not. I have a strong feeling that it might be and I want to prevent GOG to get in trouble but entertainment law might work a bit different and may have different clauses of which I don't know. If somebody knows a good lawyer specialized in entertainment law you might ask him and he might help but all I know is that those law works a bit different.

So long the best thing everybody can do is get all those bonus material from GOGs servers to be secure. I really don't like this. Why do I have a shelf if I still have to secure everything?
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yogsloth: This, to me, is a huge problem.

As others have anologized, it would be as if a physical goods retailer broke into your house and took back part of what they sold to you after the fact.

I paid a price for a certain product - you can't come back and permanently steal back part of it for any reason. I have a hard time believing this is legal in Poland, Cyprus, or the USA... but what recourse do we have? Am I really going to hire a lawyer and sue somebody in one or more foreign countries over this? Are you?

It's the long-term risk of going to a digital economy, where value exists intangibly. Very troubling.
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mrkgnao: While I am as troubled by this as you are, allow me to be a devil's advocate for a moment.

The way I tend to view it is that what GOG sold me is the digital copy that I keep on my external HD at home. GOG did not delete the soundtrack from there. For me, the digital copy on GOG's servers is just a nice-to-have backup for a rainy day. I am fully aware of the possibility of GOG going out of business one day, at which point all their servers will be gone. I don't count on having access to GOG forever.

When you buy a physical object, you don't ask the seller to keep it on his premises for you. You take it home and safeguard it. For me, it's the same with digital stuff.
You are right with this BUT as long as GOG is still in business they have to stay true to their promises. One of them is "download it as often as you like".
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viperfdl: I'm not sure if it is a decision by GOG what to take away from the customers or whether the rightholders made that decision.
As I said before. The rightholders have no say in things which were already GIVEN AWAY! It's true that you only buy the right to use the software but It's not that they were only given for a limited time to the end user or with theright to reclaim those using rights at any time. Would be funny if Bruce Springsteem (or his company) would ring my bell and say to me that they don't like it when I listen to his music and so they are reclaiming the rights to use his music. The more analogies you build the more it is getting clear that this cannot be allowed.
Post edited February 04, 2015 by MarkoH01
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shmerl: Great to see GOG referencing ScummVM now! I hope same will be done for DosBox games as well.
Would I be wrong in assuming that all DosBox games would be Linux-compatible?
Wouldn't, for instance, "Syndicate Plus" run in DosBox? Yet it is not labeled as available in Linux.
Is is because it runs on Window's compatibility mode? But then again, it says that it works on Mac OS X, so it most likely is distributed with DosBox.

What am I missing? Having a label saying the kind of emulation used would make it so much easier for me (and many others, I assume).
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DyNaer: The real question , when GOG put the soundtrack as bonus, did you have the right holders authorization ?

Because as mentioned above removing content from user account ,(free or not isn't the matter) ; it was advertised with this content ,and removing it from user account is just a bad pratice. (note ; i'm not an expert in laws , but that doesn't sound good)

If GOG didn't have the authorization, that's a different matter, and pretty much understandable , but still.... :/
It is possible that some link in the complex licensing chain expired, and GOG is at the bottom of it.

However, I do agree with you. Some times I purchase a game because of the extras. I am purchasing the entire package. If GOG pulls something from it, I will feel cheated.
It may be legal it may be illegal and it may be on the edge of it. Fact is if somebody is new to GOG buys a game and get taken away part of the bonus material he might never return to GOG (and in worst case scenario now use STEAM) so GOG should make more obvious that bonus material is under the risk of being taken away (that is if the right holder really can order GOG to pull bonus material already given away). I am downloading my complete bonus material as I write this.
Post edited February 04, 2015 by MarkoH01
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MarkoH01: It may be legal it may be illegal and it may be on the edge of it. Fact is if somebody is new to GOG buys a game and get taken away part of the bonus material he might never return to GOG (and in worst case scenario now use STEAM) so GOG should make more obvious that bonus material is under the risk of being taken away (that is if the right holder really can order GOG to pull bonus material already given away). I am downloading my complete bonus material as I write this.
Steam pulls the same crap.
Recently GTA: SA had an update that removed songs from the radio.
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MarkoH01: It may be legal it may be illegal and it may be on the edge of it. Fact is if somebody is new to GOG buys a game and get taken away part of the bonus material he might never return to GOG (and in worst case scenario now use STEAM) so GOG should make more obvious that bonus material is under the risk of being taken away (that is if the right holder really can order GOG to pull bonus material already given away). I am downloading my complete bonus material as I write this.
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omega64: Steam pulls the same crap.
Recently GTA: SA had an update that removed songs from the radio.
Yes, but STEAM is known for making its own laws. I always thought that GOG is different and I still want to believe this.

BTW: The GTA situation really sounds like the devs never had the rights to include those songs and so they tried to prevent damage by pulling those songs. Still not correct but as I said: it is STEAM (I remember how I had to fight to get my stolen account from them back once - since then I am only buying there if I have the possibility to play it without STEAM and it don't have the possibility to get the same on GOG).
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omega64: Steam pulls the same crap.
Recently GTA: SA had an update that removed songs from the radio.
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MarkoH01: Yes, but STEAM is known for making its own laws. I always thought that GOG is different and I still want to believe this.

BTW: The GTA situation really sounds like the devs never had the rights to include those songs and so they tried to prevent damage by pulling those songs. Still not correct but as I said: it is STEAM (I remember how I had to fight to get my stolen account from them back once - since then I am only buying there if I have the possibility to play it without STEAM and it don't have the possibility to get the same on GOG).
Sounds more like the license on those specific songs ran out. :P
Still ridiculous that changing it is even allowed.
Post edited February 04, 2015 by omega64
I guess there is no risk of losing the WItcher Bonus material (>4GB) because of CD-Project RED and GOG being the same?
Post edited February 04, 2015 by MarkoH01
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Gede: Would I be wrong in assuming that all DosBox games would be Linux-compatible?
Wouldn't, for instance, "Syndicate Plus" run in DosBox? Yet it is not labeled as available in Linux.
Is is because it runs on Window's compatibility mode? But then again, it says that it works on Mac OS X, so it most likely is distributed with DosBox.

What am I missing? Having a label saying the kind of emulation used would make it so much easier for me (and many others, I assume).
As usual, it is very possible to run DOSBox games in Mac/Linux, even when it's not mentioned in the game's page. Why is it not mentioned, you might ask? Two reasons:

1) Mentioned OSs means that should the game not work correctly in the depicted OS, you are guaranteed GOG support to help you troubleshoot the game. No such help if you try to run a game on a non-officially supported OS. Yes, even if it's just DOSBox. This is easily explained by...
2) ...deals with the license holder. They can make or break what versions may GOG officially distribute and support. For instance, GOG could easily add a DOSBox version of Dark Forces for Mac, but since there was an earlier Mac port by a different distributor, they aren't legally able to do so.