Steam user violates subscriber agreement, loses $1,800 in games
What happens if you violate Steam's Subscriber Agreement and you have a library of games worth nearly $2,000? As one user learned, you'll lose access to all of those games.
The user in question, who has a total of $1,794.52 worth of games on his or her Steam account, decided to ask how much another person might pay for such an account. "Obviously I don't want someone to pay $1,800 for my account," the gamer wrote on Reddit. "I'm looking at money of course, not full price considering I bought most of them on sale, but maybe we can come to some sort of deal...Of course if someone actually takes me up I'll be removing my credit card information from the account, along with my friends list."
That was a month ago. A little more than a week ago the user was unable to connect with Steam, and was later informed that the account had been disabled for violating the Steam Subscriber Agreement, which explicitly states "you may not sell or charge others for the right to use your account, or otherwise transfer your account." And according to this e-mail chain, the ban is permanent.
In a later Reddit post, the user claims he or she was simply "asking how much someone would pay for a profile like that" and that the account was never actually sold or traded. However, the intention to sell was clearly there, as another post reads "I WAS 'trying' to sell my Steam account on r/gameswap, but that was over a month ago, you can't even access the post now. What pisses me off is that they waited an entire month, up to last night, before disabling my account. They didn't even send me an email (explaining) why it was disabled, I was just logged off of Steam with no warning."
ArsTechnica
Valve has been conctacted by Ars but have not responded as of yet.
Long story short: in a move that would make the Thought Police proud, Valve permabanned a user just for considering selling their account.
Hopefully this turns out to just be an honest mistake, but it raises serious questions about consumer rights in the age of digital distribution and good ol' ToU agreements, and with any luck we'll get some good old fashioned SW hypocrisy (ie PC-types who railed against EA attempting to defend PC golden-boy Valve after pulling the exact same **** move) as well.
*Update*: Valve has re-activated the account.
Still, I think the incedent serves as a good example of the issues DD faces. Other distributors (*cough*MS*cough*EA*cough*Sony*cough*Acti-Bliz*cough*) aren't necessarily known for having the same consumer-friendly and understanding attitude as Valve, and we'll likely see more and more of these types of situations as DD becomes more popular. Furthermore, it raises the question of what's so wrong with selling your Steam account or why can't we transfer game licenses, considering Steam and other DD services already have the DRM in place to combat any potential abuses.
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