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?

For the most part there are not really any global laws that would consider such a thing. There are international laws yes, but not likely international laws governing whether or not it is legal on a global scale to sell a person's online video game account to another person somewhere else in the world. If there was any law that might possibly affect someone it would most likely be a law of continental jurisdiction such as the European Union for example, or specific to an individual country or even smaller jurisdiction and the only way to know if such a law exists and applies to a particular person is to contact an intellectual property attourney familiar with the laws of the specific jurisdiction in question to inquire about the legalities of entering into such a transaction. My guess, and I am not a lawyer and doubt anyone else here is that can speak authoritatively on the manner on a global scale either, is that it is not illegal anywhere on the planet and is not a legal matter at all. But if it is important to know for sure there is but one way to find out, to contact an intellectual property attourney familiar with the laws of the jurisdictions in which the transactions would be taking place.

Perhaps the more important question is whether doing so would violate the terms and service agreement that has been agreed to by the account holder when signing up, or whatever agreement terms are currently active for the account. If the service provider (GOG in this case) does not permit transfer of ownership of accounts from one person to another by some means or another (with or without the exchange of money or some other form of barter perhaps), then it is possible that attempting to do such a transaction could at that time or at a later date be discovered and cause the agreement to be invalidated and the account possibly terminated or subject to some other restriction or similar. If one is concerned to not breach a service agreement then one needs to read and understand the most current version of such an agreement that is applicable at a given time and/or contact the service provider (GOG in this case) directly and inquire about whether such a transaction is within the terms of service agreement and if not to request they point out the wording of the agreement that makes such a transaction invalid.

Violating a TOS agreement could potentially cause the service provider to terminate the account and all services connected to it at their own choosing potentially with no recourse of action to be taken perhaps so it is good to find these things out directly from the horse's mouth so to speak rather than relying on 1000 comments and opinions of random strangers spread around the planet. :)

It probably would not violate any laws anywhere I presume however, but I am not a lawyer familiar with all of the laws of every level of jurisdiction everywhere on Earth either so I can't conclusively or authoritatively state that and I doubt anyone else can either. Just go right directly to the service provider (GOG) and ask them and/or talk directly to a lawyer, any other option is really just flipping coins.

Hope this helps.


P.S. Another thought just occurred to me which is that it is also theoretically possible that there might be laws in a given jurisdiction that even protect the consumer and explicitly grant them the legal right to sell something such as an online virtual video game account and not permit the service provider to disallow it. That's another question to ask a lawyer in the given jurisdiction(s) worthy of knowing.

To answer your question, it is not ethical, but if the terms of use do not specify this, it is legal, unless they specify it is not under some different thing that you sign. It is not ethical to sell a GOG account though. GOG is allowing users as much freedom as possible and is giving a better service than anyone else. However, if there's nothing in the terms of use to state that selling is not allowed, you may as well consider it legal since they can't punish you for doing it.

Ok... who is the wise guy that reported my account?!?

you realise this is a 2010 necro?
http://www.gog.com/forum/general/is_it_legal_to_sell_a_gog_account/post88

IT IS!

The forums are sorted based on which threads have been posted on the most recently and AFAIK not configurable to some other sorting choice. I just read the thread title from the GOG sorted list of current activity top to bottom and determine if it sounds interesting to look at, poke my head in and comment if I've got some feedback or whatnot to offer/share/contribute. Of course I don't look at the date on every single post of every single thread I am about to comment on either... does anyone? Too much time to bounce around every page and read every possible post and what date it was written and whether or not anyone ever provided an answer or already shared the same opinion/thoughts you would like to share. It's easier to just post and hope it is useful to someone. :)

I've answered some very old threads in the past also where nobody had an answer to the person's problem with a game or some other issue but I did some number of years later after nobody commented for n years, so ... :)

I'm not confined by the mortal limitations of time and such strange human perceptions! Muahahahahahaa! ;oP

*points at clock.

Skeletonbow could compile an entire encyclopedia with just one of his posts. lol

This
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y10/Sydarm/Necro2.jpg

Ok, ok... I admit... I'm also very tired at the moment too it's been a very long day. Not a time thing though! Biological juju beans! ;oP
Pinhead! I like! One thing though... can I do the honours of expiring the kittens? I hate cats. :)

Why are you looking at me? I don't have anything to do with it ;-)

Cats are the best! GOG's community LOVE cats, so adapt or die! :)

To give it away without keeping backups, maybe. To sell it, definitely not.

Are you keeping a back-up of this thread?

Agreed, they taste great! Not as good as chicken mind you, but it's up there! ;)

It's always a good day when you get to eat pussy.

LOL