To whom it may concern. I have just sent a letter to GOG support asking them about their policy on "abused bundle keys" giveaways hosted on their forum. As I am very much in favour of openness, I am placing the letter here also. I will also post the reply so there will finally be some clarification on GOG's policy in this matter. The letter is as follows:





Greetings

As you may be aware, I have a bit of a pet hate against what I use to call "abused bundle keys".

HB clearly states and asks users to not giveaway parts of their bundles.

"Unfortunately, if you already have a game in the bundle you will not be able to gift the extra games to a friend.

Please consider your bundle a "unit", and not to share copies of the games or Steam keys from it.

If you'd like to give a copy of the games away, we have a system in place that allows you to buy a gift key from www.humblebundle.com so your friends can have access to direct downloads as well as any Steam or other keys we have included."
(http://support.humblebundle.com/customer/portal/articles/243192-if-i-already-have-a-game-s-in-the-bundle-do-i-have-the-ability-to-gift-the-extra-copy-in-the-bundle-)

and

"Can I sell/give away my keys?
Each purchase is intended for use by one individual. Please read our Terms of Service."
(http://support.humblebundle.com/customer/portal/articles/243221-can-i-sell-give-away-my-keys-)

Indie Royale have similar policy:
"Can I share games / bundle / Desura keys if I already own a game in the bundle?
Indie Royale bundles are strictly for personal use only. Sharing Steam keys because you already own a game in the bundle is not allowed. The same applies for Desura keys. If your friend wants a bundle you should gift them or they can purchase it themselves.

The idea behind Indie Royale bundles is to support indie games, we always offer excellent games at a price you cannot beat - so please recognize this and support the developers participating by buying your own bundle."
(http://www.indieroyale.com/faq#nosharing)

This is a DD store which is built on establishing trust with the customer, respecting them and asking for their respect in turn. It therefore saddens me to see givaways such as this: http://www.gog.com/forum/general/to_giveaway_or_not_to_giveaway being allowed on your forum.

I am writing this letter to ask the following questions:

1 - Do you accept this behavior on your forum?
2 - If you do not, what is the accepted way of dealing with this?

Thank you very much for taking the time reading this letter.

Kindest regards
amok

Have you mentioned this to the people that are giving away these games?

... are you STILL going on about this?

Jesus Christ

I don't get why anyone would want to do a giveaway for Humble Bundle games anyway. They are already pay-what-you-want, so if you want to be really cheap you might as well just pay them one dollar and get the games directly (and don't tell me you can't spare that one dollar)

It's like doing a giveaway of free candy, what's the point?

What?

I agree. I realize people just want to share the wealth and all that, but c'mon. Its for developers AND charity. No one is forcing you to download those extra copies.

If this is in part or in entirety a response to the Humble Bundle trade that I engaged in with Jamotide, let me assure you that it was done with no ill intent on either side. I had no experience with Humble Bundle accounts prior to that trade, and assumed it worked the same as GOG gifts and so forth. Jamotide as well conduct their side of the trade with the same responsibility, providing a key that had not been redeemed. I understand from the terms you have posted that this should have been done instead as a gift purchase, a distinction I was not aware of. Whatever the case, I fully support the developers getting their fair dues and the sites selling these games should be supported honestly.

Jamotide has given me the keys associated with this game and they will go no further, so there will be no additional downloads. Sorry if anything I wrote made it sound otherwise, I again have to plead a degree of ignorance about how HB keys work and differ from GOG keys. I assumed that an HB key represented the same thing as a GOG key, namely an individual purchase redeemable once. I now see that they are more fungible.

If anyone doubts my sincerity in this, I am more than happy to delete the copy of the game I obtained in the trade and buy it from GOG. As a developer and a gamer, I understand the importance of all parties receiving their appropriate remuneration, and do not wish to be seen as supporting or condoning illicit sharing.

It's not towards you specifically it's a well-known and ongoing practice that is one of amok's pet peeves.

I don't get as angry about it but I still don't agree with it. If you have been educated today thanks to this then at least some good came out of it besides the probable arguing that will occur.

Why not? It's still an issue.

I do share some of your concerns, but all this talk of piracy and "legality" is really starting to bother me. Like I said before on these forums, I work for a small book publishing house, and it annoys me quite a bit that every single entertainment/art industry goes through exactly the same problems as the video game industry, but, for some reason, the video game one seems to think they're entitled to some kind of privileged treatment. Other entertainment industries (mostly the movie and music ones) are also extremely protective and aware of copyright and intellectual properties, but, despite all the protective measures they take, neither one is as bothersome with it as the video game industry is; plus, it seems the video game industry plays the victim card quite often, too. They're not victims at all, they're not martyrs, and they definitely do not deserve any kind of special treatment.

These are digital times. We're talking about digital copies of games, here, not physical ones. How can you measure losses via the number of people playing out of a virtual endless stock of copies of something? The people who would buy the game bought it despite piracy and giveaways. Sometimes piracy can be a good thing; when people don't have access to an album, a game, a book, a movie, and they stumble upon it on the internet, maybe, just maybe, by experiencing it, they'll come to the conclusion the quality of it is so high that they need to support its makers. Then they go and buy it.

If it wasn't for piracy, I would never have been able to come in contact with bands such as Man Man, The Duke Spirit, Sons and Daughters, The Black Belles. And now I own their albums, because I really liked them and didn't feel like not having my physical or legal digital copies of them, since the artists did deserve my money. I'm from Portugal and most portuguese bands and artists are pro-piracy, since now they're getting to be known in countries like Japan, the US, the UK and most of South America. Something they wouldn't be, if piracy didn't exist at all. If you like something -- if you *REALLY* like something you downloaded illegally -- you'll be sure to buy it.

On the particular subject of video game piracy, here's an article I find quite interesting, by Team Meat's Tommy Refenes, in which he argues that refunds and apathy hurt your games more than piracy: Apathy and refunds are more dangerous than piracy.

I'm not trying to change your mind, I just wanted people to know that there are ways in which piracy can be a good thing, actually, and not the huge, morally-wrong monster it's always labeled as.

I see what you did there!

I'm so tired of hearing about this, I feel like posting all of my spare bundle keys here right now. Must. Resist. Urge. :/

I am also so tempted to have a huge giveaway of my keys as well
I'll be blunt.if gog had a problem with this someone would have done something about it already. people have a right to do with their keys.I think to many its s moral issue more than anything. lots of people do it.thats the reality.sorry amok.live with it.gigs hands off policy is great and I for one like many others are happy as way things are.

+1 for asking the question, interested in the response