Valve Responds to Steam Territory Deactivations 258
An anonymous reader passed us a link to Shack News, which is reporting on official commentary from Doug Lombardi of Valve about the international Orange Box code problem we talked about yesterday. According to Lombardi, the folks who bought copies of the game from a Thai gaming store are pretty much out of luck. They'll need to buy a local copy to have a working version. That said, they should be able to replace the old code with a new one. "'Some of these users have subsequently purchased a legal copy after realizing the issue and were having difficulty removing the illegitimate keys from their Steam accounts,' added Lombardi. 'Anyone having this problem should contact Steam Support to have the Thai key removed from their Steam account.'"
Consumer rights (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Consumer rights (Score:3, Interesting)
If you'd lived in Europe and went to the US, you wouldn't have been affected. There's no regional restriction for copies sold in any of the European countries (except Russia, I think).
Then again, I could imagine it would be a reasonable compromise for Valve to check you actually played the game for an extended period of time in Russia before you legitimately moved to the US. If it showed you played it for a few weeks in Russia and now you want to play it in the US, then I would agree that they should allow it. If their records show the game was never played in its original country of purchase, then I think they'd have decent grounds to decline your request.
But we're just talking about Russia here. If you bought yours in the UK or Germany or whatever, you could play that in the US without any problems.
Legal, illegal, legitimate, illegitimate (Score:4, Interesting)
That, in addition to the class action suit for not being able to use the software they lawfully purchased, of course.
Re:Moneygrab (Score:5, Interesting)
Of course, AIDS vaccinations and video games are two very different things, but the same principle applies. If Valve didn't protect its regional sales like this, some kid in Thailand might not be playing Portal right now, because it would cost too much. Valve's actions are undoubtedly profit-motivated, but they also protect the game's international audience. Just some food for thought.
Re:Shitty Company (Score:3, Interesting)
Problem with this is.. (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:remote control disablement = stealing (Score:3, Interesting)
When I bought STALKER in Thailand for 800 baht it came with a Thai manual but that's about it. A Thai version would suck and no one would buy it. It's cool to have western stuff.
Re:Consumer rights (Score:3, Interesting)
In this case though, the software is functionally identical. It will do everything the other one will, but is prevented from doing so by DRM access restrictions.
They're allowed to make a Thai version, or even to stick a sticker on the English version and call it a Thai version, but not to shut it down anywhere else in the world.
That's how they're breaking the law. Taking something I have legal right to own, to purchase, and to use, and shutting it down remotely because of DRM which was enacted specifically to bypass the right of first sale.
Yes, I know they can't enforce their fancy marketing scheme this way. Tough luck.
WTO (Score:3, Interesting)
You are not allowed to restrict products to sale in a given region. This is the whole purpose of WTO treaties. It is what allows the US to sell it's food internationally and to import international goods.
The WTO are who brought down the MPAA region codes. They could do the same to Valve.
Re:remote control disablement = stealing (Score:3, Interesting)
I know what Valve is doing. (But I find it disingenious the Fanbois keep saying they're doing this to help the poor Thais and how everyone else understands that like every other company since the beginning of time they're simply trying to reach a larger market.) That doesn't mean that I have support them breaking the law to do it.
Once I buy something, for the full price or not, from an authorized reseller or not, I have full legal title to it. You don't have the right to disable the product simply because you don't like how I got it.
Valve broke the law when they tried to enforce their scheme.
If they really want to help the poor they wouldn't try a region locking system - what about the rich Thais and the poor North Americans. They'd introduce the 'welfare version' and simple put 'Welfare Version - PlayerName' in the player name field. Nobody would want to be seen using the welfare version (not donating the $10) unless they were poor. That would actually give poor people the ability to buy a poor copy, the rich the ability to buy the regular (even if they were in Thailand) and wouldn't do anything but apply a little social pressure to the cheapskates. That would achieve the goals they tell you they're going for. But they won't do that - a non-fanboy might wonder if that's because they're lying about their goals.