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StingingVelvet: And hosting/promoting the uncut versions on Steam is a grey area Valve doesn't want to fuck around in. The law is still the root problem.
It's not a gray area, and while I perfectly understand that you might not know these intricacies of German law (many Germans don't either), it's safe to assume that Steam's legal department is qualified enough to know them.
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JMich: You are an 18 year old in Louisiana. Your parents think you are old enough to drink a beer in your house, and the law does allow for this. You go to the fridge, and find that all the beer your parents have bought for you (again, legally) has been turned into orange juice. You legally acquired alcohol, you are in a place you can legally consume alcohol, but the alcohol you had available has been swapped. Is that a legal case or not?
P.S. I specifically mention Louisiana since I think it's legal in the case of private premises.
Comparing physical goods to software is always stupid.

I already posted I think Valve is wrong to force any version of anything though, so I'm not sure what else you want me to say?
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Export: Try the VPN thing! You get to trick Steam and change all the €s into $s!
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Foxhack: FYI, using a VPN to bypass region restrictions and prices will get your account banned.
No it won't. That's like saying drinking beer at 17 will get you arrested. There's a big difference between there being a rule and that rule actually being enforced. Valve won't ban someone using a VPN -it would effectively be the same as banning someone from using Steam when they're on a foreign holiday. And we're not talking about bypassing prices, either.
I am more or less saying the same thing as jamyskis and Psyringe are saying in the posts above yours. It's not the law that is the cause of the problems, it's the interpretation of it, and while you can accept a non-trained individual to make that mistake, a trained team shouldn't be making this kind of mistake.
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Export: No it won't. That's like saying drinking beer at 17 will get you arrested. There's a big difference between there being a rule and that rule actually being enforced. Valve won't ban someone using a VPN -it would effectively be the same as banning someone from using Steam when they're on a foreign holiday. And we're not talking about bypassing prices, either.
Losing your Steam account and hundreds or possibly thousands of euros worth of games and getting a slap on the wrist by the local bobby are two entirely different things. There's a reason that Valve has a tick box marked "I confirm that I live in this country" - even when you are in a foreign country, you are still required to give your address at home.

The likelihood of actually getting your account banned for using a VPN may be small, but do you want to open yourself up to this legal risk?
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Export: No it won't. That's like saying drinking beer at 17 will get you arrested. There's a big difference between there being a rule and that rule actually being enforced. Valve won't ban someone using a VPN -it would effectively be the same as banning someone from using Steam when they're on a foreign holiday. And we're not talking about bypassing prices, either.
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jamyskis: Losing your Steam account and hundreds or possibly thousands of euros worth of games and getting a slap on the wrist by the local bobby are two entirely different things. There's a reason that Valve has a tick box marked "I confirm that I live in this country" - even when you are in a foreign country, you are still required to give your address at home.

The likelihood of actually getting your account banned for using a VPN may be small, but do you want to open yourself up to this legal risk?
I already have, as did thousands of people when Skyrim was launched, and presumably for any other timezone sensitive release date. We're not talking about buying games in another region, we're talking about buying them in your own region, but downloading the files from another region so as to avoid issues like the one affecting the OP. It's exactly the same as me going across the Channel to France and downloading my games there from Valve's point of view - unless they have shares in British Airways that I don't know about.
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jamyskis: While I had been limiting my Steam use to major titles that I really wanted and required Steam, I am now done with these ***s for good. This is the final fucking insult.

Anyone who has the non-USK (PEGI) version of Sleeping Dogs in Germany will suddenly now discover that their version has been retroactively censored, so many of the finishers are no longer possible.

FUCK THEM. And passing on Steam makes PC gaming very difficult, I'm pretty much done with PC gaming now.


Edit: I'm calmed down now. While my frustration and resolve above are unchanged, I apologise for the rant, although I'll leave it here largely untouched for the sake of continuity. Mods: Feel free to change the title to "Fscking Steam!".
I understand you completely, but you know what? I stoped caring about this shit. There was a time when such thing was enough to make me go ballistic but not anymore. Life is to short. Right now if any game i buy has any restrictions tied to it i just download the pirated varsion and play it instead. I'm not going to abandon PC gaming just because steam or any other publisher/digital download service behave like assholes. God bless piracy for letting me play games i bought the way i want.
I don't want to read through all that legal expertise, but can somebody tell me if there is any more information on the issue? I have several games on Steam which are censored in Germany (one of the reasons I use Steam is because I can play US versions without a hassle).

So far the internet turned up nothing for me. The only think on the Steam forums is that the Russian version got censored too and this was due to a bug.


Any news?
I understand OP is pissed off but if Steam has to change something due to ratings isn't that the rating system fault and not Valves?
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SovietSharkey: I understand OP is pissed off but if Steam has to change something due to ratings isn't that the rating system fault and not Valves?
Not really: worst case the game gets rated 18+, can still be sold to adult, and previous owners can keep it.
Post edited November 12, 2012 by dksone
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SimonG: I don't want to read through all that legal expertise, but can somebody tell me if there is any more information on the issue? I have several games on Steam which are censored in Germany (one of the reasons I use Steam is because I can play US versions without a hassle).

So far the internet turned up nothing for me. The only think on the Steam forums is that the Russian version got censored too and this was due to a bug.

Any news?
I'll check later, but there is a little gem of a case on Steam that you may want to look at and that is Dead Rising 2: Off the Record.

Interestingly, Capcom pulled the same shit using GFWL on the retail version.
Do we have to keep cluttering the forums with topics like this?
I'm a Steam user and I do get offended by this thread/topic.

If you have a problem of your game get censored by Steam: don't buy from Steam. Don't buy games that eventually get censored because your county requires it (look for your countries rating for that game). Changes your country, live some place else. Sign a petition online to remove this type of restriction. But just don't bash some content provided that others are thankful for. Giving gamers enjoyment and fun.
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olanorig: I'm a Steam user and I do get offended by this thread/topic.
I have a Steam account too (I just don't use it for playing), and while I'm not offend by your failure to read the thread, please let me point out that:

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olanorig: Don't buy games that eventually get censored because your county requires it
We have already explained multiple times that Steam is in absolutely no, zilch, zero way required to retroactively censor a game that has been bought uncensored. If anything, then Steam might be _violating_ the German law with such practices (though that remains to be determined), they are by no means _following_ it.

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olanorig: Changes your country, live some place else.
Wow. Very useful suggestion.
Please don't bring the level of discussion in the GOG forum down to that of the Steam forums?
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Psyringe: We have already explained multiple times that Steam is in absolutely no, zilch, zero way required to retroactively censor a game that has been bought uncensored. If anything, then Steam might be _violating_ the German law with such practices (though that remains to be determined), they are by no means _following_ it.
Oh really?