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California’s new law forces digital stores to admit you’re just licensing content, not buying it (www.theverge.com)

submitted 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) by ampersandrew@lemmy.world to c/games@lemmy.world

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If you don't retain some kind of actual ownership, they will not be allowed to use terms like "buy" or "purchase" on the store page button. I hope there aren't huge holes in this that allow bad actors to get around it, but I certainly loathe the fact that there's no real way to buy a movie or TV show digitally. Not really.

EDIT: On re-reading it, there may be huge holes in it. Like if they just "clearly tell you" how little you're getting when you buy it, they can still say "buy" and "purchase".

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[-] Mango@lemmy.world 14 points 1 month ago

Let's just face it. There isn't ever going to be a publishing company that doesn't fuck us however they can for an extra dime. Companies are machines full of people deciding whatever they have to for money.

There also will never be a way they can keep us from just copying files.

[-] ampersandrew@lemmy.world 7 points 1 month ago

They've already invented ways to keep us from just copying files: in that they don't provide us with all of the files in a lot of cases anymore.

[-] Mango@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago

If it can display on your screen or play through your speakers, you can copy it.

If it's software as a service, just don't buy. We can live without whatever it is they make.

[-] skibidi@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago

Well, sort of. HDCP exists, and does make it harder to capture an AV stream.

For interactive content, the current push online components hosted on external servers adds a lot of complexity. While a lot of that stuff can be patched around by a very dedicated community, not every piece of content gets enough community appeal to attract the wizards to do such a thing.

And while anyone can digivolve into a wizard given enough commitment and effort, the onramp is not easy these days. Wayyy back when cracking a game meant opening the file and finding the line for 'if cd_key == 'whru686', it was much easier to get casually involved. Nowadays, DRM has gotten so much more sophisticated that a tech background is essentially required to start.

[-] Mango@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago

I figure the content that's not popular enough to already be pirated is coming from smaller artists who should probably have my money.

[-] Emerald@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago

HDCP exists, and does make it harder to capture an AV stream.

Not really. You can just use a $10 splitter from Amazon

[-] ampersandrew@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago

I don't buy it in that case, but it takes me a lot of leg work a lot of times just to figure out what I'm buying, because no one is interested in making it clear besides GOG; even then, there are things I wish they did better on that front.