geteilt von: https://feddit.org/post/31053244
A cross-party group of MEPs has issued a call for legislation in support of the European Citizens’ Initiative Stop Destroying Video Games.
The ask of Stop Killing Games has repeatedly been misrepresented as a call for eternal server support, endless updates, mandatory private servers, or source-code releases. That was never the demand.
The actual demand is simple: when consumers pay for a game, publishers should not be allowed to deliberately make it unusable after support ends without providing reasonable means for continued operation.
For months, we have explained this to institutions, lawyers, developers, consumer advocates, and elected representatives. Now it is time to move from clarification to solutions.
Tiemo Wölken, the MEP leading the call for us, said:
“When nearly 1.3 million EU citizens are calling on the European Union to take action, it is our obligation to listen and to act. We cannot ignore this overwhelming call to action. The plenary debate a few weeks ago sent a clear signal: This Citizen Initiative has broad cross-party support in the European Parliament. When consumers pay for a game, they invest more than just money. They spend their time on it, make memories, develop passions and make real friends for life along the way. It is indefensible that publishers should have the right to simply pull the plug on these games at any time, and destroy cultural heritage in the process. With this letter, we reiterate our position: It’s Game Over for this abusive practice.”
This is the route we have been working toward for months. The Commission has heard the explanations. Parliament has heard the explanations. The public has now seen why those explanations were necessary.
The next step is not another round of pretending the demand is unclear. The next step is working on solutions.
That means legislation that protects consumers from having paid-for games deliberately disabled after support ends, while making clear that publishers are not being asked to provide perpetual services. It means serious discussion of reasonable end-of-life options where feasible. And it means using the upcoming Digital Fairness Act as the vehicle to turn this principle into law.
Nearly 1.3 million citizens asked the EU to act. On the 16th of this month, the Commission will officially answer the European Citizens’ Initiative.
That answer will show how seriously the Commission takes its citizens. Parliament, at least, is standing ready to act on their behalf and without it.
(Side note on the UK situation: we see it, and we are monitoring it closely. It is not yet fully clear whether this requires us to step in, but we are following developments.)
Source: Update from the SKG Reddit
To be honest, EU politicians aren't idiots. Mostly.
It's such an easy thing to implement and it would significantly increase pro-EU sentiment and democratic participation of young people.
And the only one's who are being "harmed" are foreign companies (and Ubisoft). Gaming also does not have an all-powerful lobby.
It's such an easy win for EU politicians, they'd have to be as out-of-touch as British MPs to not seize that opportunity.