@StarkRG yes and all these criticisms I do share as they are all valid.

• Granted, there are very, very few companies "doing better" for consumers with #GOG's #DRMfree options being better.

I mean, #Valve's #Steam basically is the #monopoly and refusing to sell on Steam is basically suicidal for #IndieDevs...

• So it's less that Valve is good at marketing and being able to upsell an #OnlineDRM as a #feature, but that competition is furious that their halfassed attempts didn't work.

Not "genius" but "criminally incompetent competiton" from #EA, #EpicGames, #Xbox / #Microsoft, #Playstation / #Sony and #Nintendo is why #GabeN can just "Thanos - Snap" basically "look like a saint"...

Similarly, #consumers cut back on "non-essential spending" as well, as #Greedflation & #Shrinkflation bleeds them dry.

• Cuz even when they are able and willing to pay, they get treated like shit and shafted hard to the point that #piracy is not just ramping up, but getting socially accepted.

Or to put in the words of #GabeNewell: "Piracy is always a service problem!"

• And given how #Valve turned their #OnlineDRM aka. #Steam into something that #IndieDevs get bullied into publishing on, there's certainly some weight to it, as even #EpicGames struggles to get even a tiny market share from Valve's de-facto #monopoly despite burning through millions if not billions of money to give away #games (after all they still need to pay the licensees/publishers/creators of the games they give away)...
  

Add to that the obnoxiousness of #AlwaysOnlineDRM that makes modern Games literally unplayable when the #Publishers decide to kill the infrastructure needed for it.

• Steam at least does have contingencies in place to actually remove it's #DRM and allow users to get a #DRMfree copy of their games if they were to close shop but that's not the norm in the industry. Otherwise #StopKillingGames would not be necessary as a petition.

@snow IMHO #piracy should only be considered "#theft" [with damages being limited to the cost of properly licensing it!] if the pirated material was still offered for licensing new under fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms.

• I.e. if a #game has been #delisted and the #platform it was released on is #EoL'd then there should be no claim to "damages" as the #IP holder did not provide a way to #license said content or otherwise comply with #copyright.

In the past, #EA did offer to replace broken discs / cartridges for a nominal fee [AFAIK €10 per disc or €15 for double-discs] if people mailed in the original (broken) media. I'd say that is should apply to everything, tho granted that only allows people in theory to deal with #DiscRot (assuming the publisher is able and willing to perpetually honour this service), not allowing them to legally attain new licenses.

• As a matter of fact #Adobe canceled #OneTimePurchase options for their #CreativeSuite after they got successfully sued into allowing people to #sell and #transfer #licenses for their #CS6 and other products.

#Valve & #Steam legally workaround this by merely providing access and not a #license per-se.

• Still, I think #piracy in almost all cases is (as GabeN correctly said:) "A services problem!" and if a product is fairly priced and then people will be willing to pay for it.

I just think that the rampant Enshittification of even #PhysicalMedia is unsustainable and I wish for an #OpenSource #competitor to #BDXL and it's #OnlineDRM!

#NotLegalAdvice #sarcasm #Copywrong #Copyright #Ownership #Enshittification