Ubisoft holds firm in The Crew lawsuit: You don’t own your video games

https://sopuli.xyz/post/25192820

Ubisoft holds firm in The Crew lawsuit: You don’t own your video games - Sopuli

Archive: https://archive.is/2025.04.09-191645/https://www.polygon.com/gaming/555469/ubisoft-holds-firm-in-the-crew-lawsuit-you-dont-own-your-video-games [https://archive.is/2025.04.09-191645/https://www.polygon.com/gaming/555469/ubisoft-holds-firm-in-the-crew-lawsuit-you-dont-own-your-video-games] > Ubisoft responded to California gamers’ The Crewshutdown lawsuit [https://archive.is/o/BxD7J/https://www.polygon.com/gaming/476979/ubisoft-the-crew-shut-down-lawsuit-class-action] in late February, filing to dismiss the case. The company’s lawyers argued in that filing, reviewed by Polygon [https://archive.is/o/BxD7J/https://www.scribd.com/document/848030901/The-Crew-lawsuit-Ubisoft-response-via-Polygon], that there was no reason for players to believe they were purchasing “unfettered ownership rights in the game.” Ubisoft has made it clear, lawyers claimed, that when you buy a copy of The Crew, you’re merely buying a limited access license. > “Frustrated with Ubisoft’s recent decision to retire the game following a notice period delineated on the product’s packaging, Plaintiffs apply a kitchen sink approach on behalf of a putative class of nationwide customers, alleging eight causes of action including violations of California’s False Advertising Law, Unfair Competition Law, and Consumer Legal Remedies Act, as well as common law fraud and breach of warranty claims,” Ubisoft’s lawyers wrote.

Oh cool then piracy isn’t theft.
I agree with the sentiment, but what exactly is the explanation for this? If you’re allowed to lease or rent or purchase a license, isn’t stealing that thing for free still theft?

I mean, are you taking your definition of “theft” from the law? Or from your own internal set of ethics for right and wrong? Is it theft if no one is deprived of anything, because bits copy, and because you’d never trade dollars for the privilege of maintaining an exploitative relationship with a company but that is all they’ve made available?

If you’re hung up on whether the legal system thinks it’s theft - I dunno what to tell ya, it obviously does.

As someone else pointed out when this article was posted yesterday, the legal system doesn’t consider it theft, it’s considered copyright infringement, though I suspect this doesn’t change anyone’s opinion on it
Oh, yeah that makes sense too. Bad premise all around I guess.