With GOG, you can buy any game, and you’ll have files to keep. Once you have the installer, you can keep that forever.
Even if your GOG account is hacked, banned, and GOG goes out of business, you can forever install your game onto any compatible machine, even offline, and play the game.
That’s what GOG does differently.
It’s like buying a physical game, except there’s no disc. They can’t revoke your access or deactivate your ability to play the game.
I know that. That still misses the point. The point of the law is to clarify that on digital storefronts that you make purchases for licensed digital goods, that you can’t imply to the consumer that they actually own those goods. It doesn’t matter if there is an offline installer. It doesn’t matter if you can ‘keep your installers forever’.
They just don’t allow games that use DRM (any kind of license check as a prerequisite to run software) on their store. Packaging a game with DRM is an extra step.
In the legal sense that having DRM-free software does not mean that you’re legally entitled to use it, sure.
But checking for a license before running is literally the entire definition of what DRM is. They aren’t “bypassing” anything. They didn’t create technology. They simply refused to allow software that has any type of license check (DRM).
With GOG, you can buy any game, and you’ll have files to keep. Once you have the installer, you can keep that forever.
Even if your GOG account is hacked, banned, and GOG goes out of business, you can forever install your game onto any compatible machine, even offline, and play the game.
That’s what GOG does differently.
It’s like buying a physical game, except there’s no disc. They can’t revoke your access or deactivate your ability to play the game.
I know that. That still misses the point. The point of the law is to clarify that on digital storefronts that you make purchases for licensed digital goods, that you can’t imply to the consumer that they actually own those goods. It doesn’t matter if there is an offline installer. It doesn’t matter if you can ‘keep your installers forever’.
How does an offline installer from GOG differ from the offline installer provided on a CD/DVD?
The license for the DVD version is with the actual disk, the license for the offline installer is with the GOG account.
GOG has essentially created a way to bypass their own licenses, as a feature. And it looks like they won’t be affected by this law because of it.
They haven’t created anything.
They just don’t allow games that use DRM (any kind of license check as a prerequisite to run software) on their store. Packaging a game with DRM is an extra step.
DRM and licensing are separate things.
In the legal sense that having DRM-free software does not mean that you’re legally entitled to use it, sure.
But checking for a license before running is literally the entire definition of what DRM is. They aren’t “bypassing” anything. They didn’t create technology. They simply refused to allow software that has any type of license check (DRM).
Never said they created a technology. Sorry you didnt like my choice of words.
They didn’t create anything of any type. They just declined games that didn’t follow their rules.