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EU Ruling: Reselling Downloaded Games Allowed on Steam, GoG

Author : Mia Update:Jan 22,2025

欧盟法院裁定:可合法转售下载游戏

欧盟法院裁决,消费者可以合法转售之前购买和下载的游戏及软件,即使存在最终用户许可协议(EULA)。详情请继续阅读。

欧盟法院批准转售可下载游戏

版权耗尽原则与版权界限

欧盟法院宣布,消费者可以合法转售之前购买并玩过的可下载游戏和软件。这一决定源于德国法院软件经销商UsedSoft与开发商Oracle之间的一场法律纠纷。

法院确立的原则是分销权的耗尽(版权耗尽原则₁)。这意味着,当版权持有者出售一份拷贝并授予客户无限期使用该拷贝的权利时,分销权即告耗尽,允许转售。

这一决定适用于欧盟成员国的消费者,涵盖通过Steam、GOG和Epic Games等平台获得的游戏。最初的购买者有权出售游戏许可,允许其他人(“买方”)从发行商的网站下载游戏。

判决书写道:“一份许可协议授予客户无限期使用该拷贝的权利,该权利持有者将拷贝出售给客户,从而耗尽其独家分销权……因此,即使许可协议禁止进一步转让,权利持有者也不能再反对转售该拷贝。”

实际上,这可能类似于:最初的买家提供游戏许可的代码,在出售/转售时放弃访问权限。然而,缺乏明确的市场或此类交易系统带来了复杂性,并且仍然遗留许多问题。

例如,关于注册转移如何进行的问题。例如,实体拷贝仍将注册在原始所有者的帐户下。

(1) “版权耗尽原则是对版权所有者控制其作品分销的普遍权利的限制。一旦在版权持有者同意的情况下出售了作品的副本,则该权利即告“耗尽”——这意味着购买者可以自由转售该副本,并且权利所有者无权反对。”(来自Lexology.com)

转售者在转售后无法访问或玩游戏

发行商在用户协议中插入不可转让条款,但该裁决否决了欧盟成员国此类限制。虽然消费者获得了转售的权利,但限制在于出售数字游戏的人不能继续玩它。

欧盟法院指出:“获得有形或无形计算机程序副本的原始获得者,对于该计算机程序,版权持有者的分销权已耗尽,必须在转售时使其下载到自己计算机上的副本不可用。如果他继续使用它,他将侵犯版权持有者对其计算机程序的独占复制权。”

允许为程序使用而进行必要的副本复制

关于复制权,法院澄清说,虽然独家分销权已耗尽,但独家复制权仍然存在,但它“受合法获得者使用所需复制的限制”。规则还允许制作使用程序所需的目的副本,并且任何合同都不能阻止这一点。

“在这种情况下,法院的答复是,任何随后获得版权持有者分销权已耗尽的副本的获得者都构成这样的合法获得者。因此,他可以将第一获得者卖给他的副本下载到他的计算机上。这种下载必须被视为计算机程序的复制,这是使新的获得者能够根据其预期目的使用该程序所必需的。”(来自《欧盟版权法:评论》(埃尔加知识产权法评论丛书)第二版)

对备份副本销售的限制

值得注意的是,法院裁定不得转售备份副本。合法获得者被限制转售计算机程序的备份副本。

“计算机程序的合法获得者不能转售程序的备份副本。”这是根据欧盟法院(CJEU)在Aleksandrs Ranks & Jurijs Vasilevics诉微软公司一案中的判决。

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