The Rights of Publishers and Traders under EU Directive 2019/770 on Digital Content and Services

A publisher never wants to cooperate with the first point, because there is nothing to be earned, and a publisher cannot cooperate with the second point because he is not allowed to do so (after all, he no longer has licenses for distribution).

The publisher does not have to participate in anything. The holder of the distribution platform, who also acts as a trader, should do so. And from EU Directive 2019/770 on contracts for digital content and services, Article 10 on the rights of third parties, traders must ensure that use of the purchased content or service is not hindered by limitations imposed to comply with the rights of third parties. third parties, in particular intellectual property rights.

‘Use’ in the broadest sense means any form of legally permitted exercise of your rights regarding that digital content, so if you have the right to resell – that right too.

If the trader does not meet this requirement, this article of this EU directive classifies this as non-conformity, whereby the consumer is entitled to the usual remedies: repair (i.e. they see that they have again arranged the rights, so that it is allowed again ); partial compensation in proportion to loss of value (which, in the event of not being able to resell, amounts to the value you could still get for it on the second-hand market); or if they do not want to rein in, cancel the contract, whereby the full purchase price must be refunded.
(Yes; the directive explicitly mentions the purchase price. And it does not contain any provision for depreciation through use. The harmonization criteria state that no deviations may be made to the detriment of the consumer when implementing the directive in national legislation, so a Member State can and may do so depreciation is not legally permitted.)

By the way, this is not a solution to being able to resell, for example, a purchase on Steam. In that case it is not about your rights being limited; but whether you even have that right.

Video games, just like e-books, fall into a gray area where they are both software – and therefore covered by the relevant EU directive that states that you have a right to resell – and another form of creative work that falls under falls under the generic intellectual property directive, which does not give you that right.

There is a tension there and it is the officially published opinion of the Advocate General of the Supreme Court of the EU that each court must make an individual decision in each individual case, taking into account the circumstances of that case and the relevant market, as to whether the right to resale there should prevail or not – especially considering whether it would keep the market healthy or make it healthier; or would actually be counterproductive.

There is therefore absolutely no general ruling from the EU court on the status of these guidelines, whereby there would always or never be a right of resale on video games, e-books, etc. in a general sense. The court refuses to do that.

[Reactie gewijzigd door R4gnax op 14 oktober 2023 16:01]

2023-10-14 09:42:11
#CEO #Ubisoft #physical #discs #continue #exist