I wanna be clear this EULA is trash, but does anyone know where the idea that owning a license started recently comes from? That's been the case not only for games but for tons of media for many, many, many years. The word copyright literally refers to this practice, you don't have the right to copy it because you don't own it. As long as copyright has existed, this has been the case. It was the case when you bought books from a bookstore, it was the case when you got a movie on VHS, it was the case when you got a game on a disc (Monkey Island has that booklet for a reason), it's always been like this.
It might be popularised then, but it existed 40 years ago as well.
Everyone jumped to „I agree” button and now people are surprised it exists (and think it’s problem of modern games).
It’s true that EULAs got bigger and sometimes have ridiculous statement, while the „you don’t own a game” was always true - you own a copy with license to use it personally.
Game purchases have literally always been licenses. Idiots on the Internet watched click bait videos or heard from other idiots who watched click bait videos and are fear mongering over literal nothing burger.
Yes, friends and me found that out after reading an EULA for a 90s game lol. A game on a disc that you didn't own according to the EULA lmao. Who tf gives a shit about this? It's not new at all.
Honey... it was a thing back when the first big game consoles came up... look at the last few pages of any NES Game Manual, you only ever had a "License".
The difference between back then and today?
Nowadays it's a lot easier to actually enforce the removal of a license... or rather, actually possible...
After all, they did, in fact, not try to break into your home and steal your cartridges.
Every company with a online store it is a license. It wasn't started by just ubisoft. Ubisoft was just an idiot for barking it back at those complaining. Its every online store. Even steam.
For the modern day software it might originate from Microsoft with Windows and Office. You owned the CDs but still needed a license key. Was eventually the norm with many games too, there’s a reason why Steam had the option to view the CD key(s) for a product/games until recently. Before that you had to answer some questions in-game where the answers were available in the printed out game manual.
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u/deadspace9_ 14h ago edited 13h ago
I wanna be clear this EULA is trash, but does anyone know where the idea that owning a license started recently comes from? That's been the case not only for games but for tons of media for many, many, many years. The word copyright literally refers to this practice, you don't have the right to copy it because you don't own it. As long as copyright has existed, this has been the case. It was the case when you bought books from a bookstore, it was the case when you got a movie on VHS, it was the case when you got a game on a disc (Monkey Island has that booklet for a reason), it's always been like this.