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General discussion (archive)Is it legal to sell a GOG account?(118 posts)(118 posts)
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Posted June 06, 2010
On several occasions I've noticed people trying to sell their GOG accounts and I started to wonder how does GOG look at this. I quickly read through the terms of use, but found nothing about this particular issue.
Since games distributed by GOG are DRM free, there is a high probability [if not a certainty] that the person selling his / her account would keep the installs for themselves and continue to use them, while allowing someone else to access their account.
I know Valve doesn't approve of this when it comes to Steam accounts, even though in Steam's case, only one person can actually use the account.
So is selling a GOG account to someone, giving them access to purchased games, legal? Can there be a transfer of ownership or is this against GOG rules?
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Posted June 07, 2010
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m0rd3n: So is selling a GOG account to someone, giving them access to purchased games, legal? Can there be a transfer of ownership or is this against GOG rules?

You raise a good question. Just because something "feels" wrong (such as selling a GOG account that already has games purchased), doesn't always mean its illegal...more often than not, it does, but not always.
It certainly "feels" wrong, though.
Post edited June 07, 2010 by ChaunceyK
Posted June 07, 2010
Of course it's wrong, use your common sense.

Like I said, all I really wanted was an official response from GOG staff, but I probably should have just e-mailed them instead. Fenixp claims they don't tend to reply on the boards, so I'll mail them.
I'd inform GOG should I come across account selling or sharing.

How would you go about reporting someone selling their account if you don't have their account name? People I've seen trying to sell their accounts never gave away the account name, just that they want to sell it and what games they have bought.
By the way, this topic is not about sharing accounts, but selling them. Sharing equals distributing copyrighted data. Selling however is a different thing entirely. Anyhoo, I'll drop GOG a few lines and hope they reply. If they do, I'll quote reply here to close the discussion with an official response.
Posted June 07, 2010
I'm assuming something like this would have gotten nipped in the bud fairly quickly, I'm guessing it isn't illegal, but GOG doesn't want us to know the answer so they're just leaving us in the dark. Regardless of whether or not it's legal, I'm sure something will pop up in the TOS fairly quickly.
Posted June 07, 2010
The software industry, music industry and movie industry have made it their goal to confuse people as much as possible when it comes to copyright, property, licenses, etc. to a point where a judge has to pick apart what is law and what isn't. All kinds of legal loopholes are being exploited by big companies yet normal users or people using copyrighted material get shot down even if it falls well within "fair use" but sites like Youtube won't take any risk and bend over backwards to please these corporations.
In short: who knows what is legal anymore? TOS, EULA, etc. are not the law yet you're meant to accept it if you use their product so how far can a TOS or EULA be upheld by the law even if it takes away the rights given by that same law? Not to mention different countries have different laws.
Take Valve and Steam: they used quite a devious trick to screw us over in a legal way by selling us subscriptions instead of licenses. As a subscriber you have FAR less rights than as a license holder. You can't cancel officially pre-orders as a result, for example (note how they don't call it "pre-orders" either? Another result). Also, legally it allows Valve or Steam to shut down any account they want without needing to provide an explanation. Canceling a license is a lot harder to do legally. It's just one example of how they find loopholes to their advantage and to the consumer's disadvantage.
Posted June 07, 2010
Not that anyone is saying otherwise, but I think that GOG strikes a nice balance between the rights/privileges of the consumer and the rights/interests of the companies involved. I'm truly glad that GOG exists as an example of what can be accomplished with a little trust displayed towards the consumer.
Not to go too off topic, but this reminds me of last years Battle.net switch-over with World of Warcraft. It may have been done to simplify accounting and give users a central location to manage their games, but I think the real reason that Blizzard wanted people to register is to reduce the number of WoW account sales. People who have their entire collection of Blizzard games tied to their WoW account are less likely to want to sell, and once achievements for Starcraft II are being earned, even less likely.
This seems to be a bit of a trend with companies, and I doubt that GOG with it's more trust-based model would want people to be selling either.
Post edited June 07, 2010 by EndlessKnight
Posted June 07, 2010
Nope.
Posted June 07, 2010
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Red_Avatar: Take Valve and Steam: they used quite a devious trick to screw us over [...] Also, legally it allows Valve or Steam to shut down any account they want without needing to provide an explanation.

From the GOG Terms of Use
Termination
These Terms of Use are effective until terminated. You agree that GOG may terminate your log in access to the Service, including your user name and password, at any time for any reason without prior notice or liability. GOG may change, suspend, or discontinue all or any aspect of the Service at any time, including the availability of any feature, without prior notice or liability.
What you're talking about is the same thing that is being done by every web store on the whole wide web. And please don't start the whole "but I can back up the games if I want" because, for me, the whole concept of digital download is that I can get to it whenever I want without having to store it myself (be it on a retail disk, my HDD or a burned disk).
Post edited June 07, 2010 by AndrewC
Posted June 07, 2010
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AndrewC: What you're talking about is the same thing that is being done by every web store on the whole wide web. And please don't start the whole "but I can back up the games if I want" because, for me, the whole concept of digital download is that I can get to it whenever I want without having to store it myself (be it on a retail disk, my HDD or a burned disk).

Erm no it's not and no I didn't. GOG nor D2D nor Gamers Gate nor Impulse nor any other site I know off uses a subscription model. As has been said, it's not because a site says "we can do this" that it's true so despite the TOS of GOG saying a similar thing, it may not actually be legally true - that was my whole point! Learn to read someone's post please, before you reply.
In the case of Valve, however, they made sure it IS true because you don't own any license. It doesn't take a genius to see that OWNING something or merely SUBSCRIBING something (which limited in time by definition) is a world apart.
Posted June 07, 2010
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m0rd3n: Thanks for the link, but that's not what this topic is about. I was asking what is GOG's standpoint on the account selling issue.

No, you asked if it is legal. This is the thread title: "Q: Is it legal to sell a GOG account?"
Posted June 07, 2010
There's only so much you can put in the title. It's only fair that you read the first entry that opens the discussion.
Posted June 07, 2010
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m0rd3n: There's only so much you can put in the title. It's only fair that you read the first entry that opens the discussion.

I did.
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m0rd3n: So is selling a GOG account to someone, giving them access to purchased games, legal?
Posted June 07, 2010
I have not read all the posts here, but let me say, I would highly doubt it would be allowed.
If it were you could buy games, keep the games, sell the account, make a new account, and do it all over again and again.
Not a good course of action with DRM Free games and ones you get to keep on your hard drive.
Posted June 10, 2010
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Faithful: I have not read all the posts here, but let me say, I would highly doubt it would be allowed.

That's the catch.
Is it wrong ? Most likely. SHOULD it be allowed ? I don't think so.
Yet - the question is whether it IS legal... which doesn't matter much in my book, since I wouldn't even consider doing wrong-yet-legal things in the first place.
Posted June 10, 2010
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Vestin: ...

Why would be selling what you own wrong?
Posted June 10, 2010
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Fenixp: Why would be selling what you own wrong?

Think of it this way...why might selling your mp3s be wrong/illegal, while selling a cd or a book would not?
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General discussion (archive)Is it legal to sell a GOG account?(118 posts)(118 posts)
(118 posts)