• fox2263@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    “And to my son, I bequeath my steam account - user is blah and password is blah”

    Checkmate steam

    • LemmyFeed@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      The article goes into that and states password sharing is against the Eula so technically they can kick you off the service if they find out… IF they find out wink wink

      • Semi-Hemi-Lemmygod@lemmy.world
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        6 months ago

        Old and busted: Pretending someone’s alive for their Social Security check

        New hotness: Pretending someone’s alive for their Steam account

        • RGB3x3@lemmy.world
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          6 months ago

          4 generations later: “I’ve inherited my father’s steam account just as he inherited it from his father and so on. The library has grown ever larger, and yet so many remain untouched. The summer sales have sustained my forefathers and yet I feel hollow. Each year, more games are added to this historic account, but each year brings more regret as the purchases go untouched. I shall make a promise to myself: finish the extensive library, honor my family, complete the library. But first, some more Counter Strike.”

  • kent_eh@lemmy.ca
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    6 months ago

    Once again further diluting the meaning of the words “bought” and “sold”

  • banana_lama@lemm.ee
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    6 months ago

    Oh I didn’t own my steam account it was created for my future children. it’s a trust.

    • werefreeatlast@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      Lol. That’s hilarious. But unfortunately you never owned the games in the first place. You rented the privilege to play the game for life?..life of the rental company or your life only? Oh man, we gotta go thru the small print on this.

      • tabular@lemmy.world
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        6 months ago

        “Add to Cart”, “Continue Shopping”, “Purchase for myself”, “Purchase as a gift”, “Purchase”.

        Who knows, one day a court may find these terms could lead people into believing they’re buying a game and force some companies to allow us to to trade or resell them (an EU court most probably).

        • Cyrus Draegur@lemm.ee
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          6 months ago

          “yes, you made a purchase. But what you purchased were tickets. Tickets to specific rides at a theme park. You did not buy the rides. You bought tickets for the rides. Those tickets are valid for your personal use. If you are not the one using them, they are not to be used.” –Their argument in court probably.

          • tabular@lemmy.world
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            6 months ago

            You can resell Windows CD keys legally in the EU as the courts rejected the “only for you” part of the argument: invalidating that part of the EULA. I probably have the right to resell my Steam game tickets.

        • werefreeatlast@lemmy.world
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          6 months ago

          Purchased should mean what it means for other things like cars or apples…you get a copy of an apple via a purchase and you are guaranteed to be able to use that apple in any manner you please. So for example, you could eat it, ferment it, store it in resin for posterity and for future humans to recreate it. There aren’t any limits to a purchase. So I agree, maybe we need ask the supremes of the supreme court if purchasing means different things. So if I purchase sex from a prostitute legally in Las Vegas, does that prostitute need to specifically state what activities I will own? Or if I go to Costco and buy a fried chicken, does Costco need to specifically state that the chicken is not just a rental but a final exchange between you and Costco, money for dead poultry. More relatable, a screw driver from home Depot, that thing will last a few uses, so do you still own it if home Depot goes down? Can you still rotate screws with it?

          • tabular@lemmy.world
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            6 months ago

            Software can be both a product and a service:

            • it’s a product when running on my computer (i.e. the game)
            • it’s a service when running on their computer (i.e. providing the hosting for downloading, multiplayer client-server hosting).


            The issue preventing one practically enacting on software is that copyright defaults to preventing you redistributing it, and you need the source code to be able to modify (fully). Thankfully some games are free software/open source when you can act on your ownership.

            • werefreeatlast@lemmy.world
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              6 months ago

              So that should be “I purchased a game” when you got a detached product that is functional forever… unless the makers make a deal with Microsoft to fuck it up on the next illegally forced update or with Nvidia to change the next card such that it is unplayable.

              And it should be “I purchased…I subscribed to this online game” when you know that shit is not yours, so don’t expect it to last.

              • tabular@lemmy.world
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                6 months ago

                That would at least be more honest… from my perspective anyway. The games industry has done this for so long that this is the norm for generatations who grew up with consoles being online - this is “purchasing” to some as words have usages and not inate meaning.

                It would be better if they just stopped doing that but you get more money that way.

  • Fubarberry@sopuli.xyz
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    6 months ago

    If steam did allow transfers this way, I can imagine it being a new type scam where people fabricate death documents to steal steam accounts.

      • Fubarberry@sopuli.xyz
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        6 months ago

        Oh for sure, but it’s definitely a concern for stuff like this. It’s a lot easier for valve to just expect people to pass login info down as a way to pass on an account.

        Valve actually migrating purchases from one account to another risks upsetting publishers, and requires whole new policies on how to verify death and verify who should receive the account. Finally there’s the risk of scams and having to resolve them. Overall it’s a lot of headache for valve, I’m not surprised they’re not jumping to offer it officially.

    • BananaTrifleViolin@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      True but ultimately this is about ownership - we don’t own our games. We license them - that is what is lost with Steam and DRM, and moving away from physical media.

      GOG is an alternative in that you can download and back up the installers for your games (mostly) but even then do you own your ganes?

      • jqubed@lemmy.world
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        6 months ago

        You’ve never owned your games. You owned the media they came on but legally you only ever had a license to use the software. Depending on the license agreement (the thing where most people click “I agree” without reading) you had more or fewer rights, such as transfer of license, but the way things work legally ownership of software seems to mean the more of the copyright ownership. Maybe like a book: you own your copy of the book but you don’t have the rights to print more books or make a movie based on the book.

        • CheeseNoodle@lemmy.world
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          6 months ago

          With physical media those licenses didn’t materially matter though because a contract you can’t read until after a purchase is automatically void in court.

          • piccolo@ani.social
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            6 months ago

            Copyright is automatically applied rather you want it or not. Licenses are granting you permissions to use the media without violating their Copyright. Having a physical copy simply means a publisher cant restrict access to your copy because they turned off their servers… (atleast before the age of zero day patches…).

              • piccolo@ani.social
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                6 months ago

                Actually the original meaning was the way I intended.

                The term “zero-day” originally referred to the number of days since a new piece of software was released to the public, so “zero-day software” was obtained by hacking into a developer’s computer before release.

                • KairuByte@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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                  6 months ago

                  Using “updated” terms intending them as their original meaning is not usually the best plan… Like me saying “that’s an awful haircut” but using awful as the near synonym for awesome.

    • PM_Your_Nudes_Please@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      Realistically, the transfer would likely need to be set up ahead of time via the account holder. For instance, my password manager has a function to allow me to designate a beneficiary. But importantly, that beneficiary assignment must come from my account before I die. If I die without designating a beneficiary, there’s nothing my family can do to gain access to my password vault. Only the accounts I have designated will be able to gain access.

      In other words, in order to falsely designate a beneficiary, they would already need access to my account. And at that point, they wouldn’t need to deal with death certificates and beneficiaries, because they already have access to my account.

    • MudMan@fedia.io
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      6 months ago

      I’d like you to read what you just wrote very slowly and imagine it’s somebody else saying it, just to visualize if it’s an absolutey bonkers thing to say.

  • sircac@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    So is a flat rate life rental rather than a purchase, the nth stuff that is not of your property but a concession…

  • Baggins [he/him]@lemmy.ca
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    6 months ago

    Life Pro Tip: Register an LLC to buy your steam games under. The LLC will never die and you can transfer ownership of the business entity while it retains control of the steam account.

    • 𝓔𝓶𝓶𝓲𝓮@lemm.ee
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      6 months ago

      Register a religious organisation/church worshipping digital media and proclaim that this account is part of religious rituals of your church. In the United States, freedom of religion is a constitutionally protected right provided in the religion clauses of the First Amendment.

      • FireTower@lemmy.world
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        6 months ago

        Tldr: Don’t do this unless you have a business that requires a steam account for tax purposes. It doesn’t need to be successful but it does need to be real.

        Trusts are probably a better option for this sort of thing than a LLC.

        • shottymcb@lemm.ee
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          6 months ago

          There’s at least 10 states with no annual fee. Arizona is $50 to file, $0 annual fees, and no annual report to file.

          If you’d prefer your company to have voting rights, you can file in Rhode Island, and your company can vote in local and state elections without ever stepping foot in the state. Hooray late stage capitalism 😞

      • ____@infosec.pub
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        6 months ago

        As others have pointed out - costs a few bucks annually,and requires beneficial ownership report (free IIRC).

        Otherwise, it’s a tried and true tactic to pass businesses down through generations. An LLC vs. a corp vs a trust is a convo to have w/ lawyer barred in your state but the general premise is vaguely sane.

    • SymbioteSynapse@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      $800/year is a lot to save maybe $1000 worth of games. At least that’s what an LLC costs where I live.

      • AppleMango@lemmy.world
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        6 months ago

        Almost 10 times less where I live, but not sure because I don’t know which dollars you’re referring to

        • SymbioteSynapse@lemmy.world
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          6 months ago

          US dollars. I’m in California, which is probably one of the most expensive states to get an LLC but still. Even at $100/year I’m probably not getting my money’s worth. Digital games don’t hold their value unfortunately.

  • ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca
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    6 months ago

    They also don’t let you transfer purchases if for instance you’re being stalked

    Had a friend lose a thousand games that way

    • Jakeroxs@sh.itjust.works
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      6 months ago

      Friend could have in theory just authorized their steam library on the computer and played them through a different account. The “family sharing” thing.

      • flappy@lemm.ee
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        6 months ago

        Don’t you have to be friends for that? I believe there was a website that showed your friends list, even if your profile was set to private.

    • ipkpjersi@lemmy.ml
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      6 months ago

      Wait, what does stalked mean in this context? Aren’t you able to block people on Steam?

      • ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca
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        6 months ago

        You can but they can just go to a steam profile site and see your previous names/the id doesn’t change

        And if they have a link to your profile (since it uses the id) they will always find you

        For this case they made her player of the week in a group she wasn’t apart of. It’s still there today but the profile is deleted (hence the question mark)

        Blocking an account doesn’t really solve the trauma of being scared to accept any friend request since it could be this guy

        Steam support did nothing

        • ipkpjersi@lemmy.ml
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          6 months ago

          Blocking an account doesn’t really solve the trauma of being scared to accept any friend request since it could be this guy

          Oh yeah, that’s a good point.

          Steam support did nothing

          I’m not surprised. I love Steam, and the service that they provide, but I don’t think their support has ever been particularly outstanding. I’ve had mixed experiences with their support. I’m not sure what they can do about this in general, though. Even if they banned him, that could set him off even more and make him try to harass her even more to the point where it’s non-stop continued and he keeps spamming friend requests, etc.

          I guess the idea would be transferring her account to a “new” account, or transferring her games to a “new” account, but yeah they don’t allow that. Damn.

  • beefbot@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    6 months ago

    Soon they’ll clarify their philosophical stance on identity & claim a person changes so much from moment to moment that yesterday-you doesn’t exist anymore, & therefore must pay again

    • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      At some point, Gabe is going to sell the company and/or die. The company will be transferred to a hedge fund. And then you’ll see a bunch of evil IT bros come up with increasingly sadistic means of cannibalizing the user base for profit.

      Drink the Mountain Dew Verification Can to continue, etc, etc.

    • CoolMatt@lemmy.ca
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      6 months ago

      I just started Talos Principle the other day and this reads like something that computer that keeps arguing with me about personhood would say

    • Gloomy@mander.xyz
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      6 months ago

      Somewhere there is a hyper capitalist parallel Universum where buddhism is the mainstream western religion and this stance is enforced rigorously.

  • Siegfried@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    Do they check? Or can i just give my password to my homie in a letter

    "Dear homie,

    if you are reading this, it means that i’m on the long path to meet with master Kaio to train my ass off to death in the afterlife. Until we meet again, this is my user and pass of my steam account.

    PS: i didn’t bought the porno VR games. Someone gifted them to me.

    Your bro in eternity,

    Siegfried"

    • udon@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      Bro, but what about the credit card receipt for porno VR games, signed by Siegfried? What about the warranty card for the porno VR games, filled out by Siegfried? What about the book “Porno VR Games and Me (This Sort of Thing is my Bag, Baby!)” by Siegfried?