https://legal.ubi.com/update2016/en-GB

Nothing much to see here, the new agreements will be in effect this April.

I probably clicked through it faster than I should have (Xeen was calling me), my understanding was that it's actually in effect as soon as you click "yes." April seemed to be the deadline to accept the new terms, however.

Seems an interesting conundrum - if you purchased games under the old terms could they deny you access to those games if you don't accept the new terms? That seems...problematic.

OTOH, it's not all that different from what MMOs have done for a long time.

...and no one gives a damn!!!

They should start a giveaway just to read their new terms of agreements!

I would, if someone explained the gist, and what has changed. I am not going to read through some 1000 page legal mumbo jumbo document. Especially since I don't have an UPlay account (I didn't even buy the Tom Clancy Humble Bundle).

Thankfully I don't use it. I believe it starts along the lines of:
"Paying customer scum be forewarned that we are absolved of any consumer rights, and your access is purely at our convenience. Yay though you struggle through the depths of half finished products (ACreed), we shall endeavor to extract full details for advertising purposes..."

Probably not a problem in the US, where "consumer rights" seem to be a purely theoretical concept with no legal basis, but in the EU they might find that their precious EULA is automatically null and void, since it (in all likelyhood) violates a number of EU laws, and opens them up to all kinds of interesting lawsuits and fines.

Their summary seems innocuous enough, but like you I'm not going to waste my time doing a detailed comparison.

Might be easier if you did a diff/patch on the two versions and could see what actually changes. That assumes they didn't reword or add/change a bunch of stuff for style or something stupid.

Alas, i can't say i trust ubisoft enough to even consider their service...

Hmm, there would definitely be a need for some app that proof reads legal documents/agreements and alerts the user of any potentional perils in there that the user should read more closely. After all if virus scanners can find unknown malware with heuristics and shit, why not this (maltext)? It could automatically skip the boring parts which explain in detail how to define a customer, software, llcense etc.

Steam tricked me into using Uplay. The bastards work in pairs sometimes!

I thought I bought a game on steam and it turned out I had to register on a ubisoft site, register for Uplay, download and install Uplay, download and install the game, log in on two places beyond steam and keep all these three up and running in the background to play the game.
Needless to say Ubisoft is now a red sheet for me and I'll never trust my 20 something gamer friends again when they wants me to buy a game. That generation doesn't even know what DRM are, can't even fathom just installing a game from a disc or a file and then running just that game and nothing else.

I noticed one sentence that had me worried for the future of Ubisoft titles:

"FOR ALL GAMES AND SERVICES INCORPORATING ORBIT DIGITAL RIGHTS MANAGEMENT TECHNOLOGY, A PERMANENT BROADBAND INTERNET CONNECTION AND THE..."

I've been able to play the games I have at the moment without any internet, so I'm thinking that they want to bring back something like what they had with Splinter Cell Conviction maybe(?)

edit: holy shit I've never read one of these before... frightening stuff.

They're not liable if someone can't use any or some of the services provided.
They can terminate all services without any notice.
You ARE liable if there's damages caused to ubisoft and/or its services by your usage of the services.

my favourite, them being able to terminate you for the following:

you claim to be any other person or entity or present your identity inaccurately;
•you do not comply with these Terms or any special condition relating to a particular Service or Services;
•you are in breach of your legal or contractual obligations;
•you infringe a third party's copyrights;
•you behave unsuitably or reprehensibly on the Services, including, without limitation, on the Forums;
•your Account has been inactive for more than six months and you do not have access to pay functions; and
•or for any other reason.

*why not just say 'we can terminate you for any fucking reason we feel like'?

There's no trick. Steam list 3rd party DRM in their store page. You're just blind.

Is that some legal-speak for "you need to keep valid credit card info on file with us at all times"?

Either that, or the ability to use functions that require a credit card etc.
I'm not sure how people would be locked out of using such a function but hey... strange times.

Anyone notice this part:

"3.3 Content Standards

In relation to the Services, you may not:

create, use, share and/or publish by any means (forum, public profile or other means) any material (text, words, images, sounds, videos, etc.) or Content which, in UBISOFT’s sole opinion, is unlawful, aggressive, threatening, malicious, defamatory, untruthful, pornographic, paedophilic, obscene, vulgar, racist, xenophobic, liable to incite hatred, sexually explicit, insulting, violent, contrary to morality or in any other way unacceptable;"

Not that I post in the forums, but what if I were to post something innocuous that another person finds "contrary to morality" or "liable to incite hatred"? Would I lose access to games at that point?