GOG's Preservation Program Is the DRM-Free Store Refocusing on the Classics

I think I've bought all the classics I want from GOG already. Their biggest selling point is that you own the games you buy from them it's not a licence like steam.

It's still a license, just more lenient and more customer friendly.

Would like to know what their income stream percentage is, for being an sink for third party platform game keys from Prime Gaming (vs Epic store, Steam being suspiciously absent).

Seems like the only time I visit GOG these days regularily.

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... “GOG games” or “GOG videos” respectively and when we talk about them all together they are “GOG content”.

2.1 We give you and other GOG users the personal right (known legally as a 'license') to use GOG services and to download, access and/or stream (depending on the content) and use GOG content. This license is for your personal use. We can stop or suspend this license in some situations, which are explained later on.

https://support.gog.com/hc/en-us/articles/212632089-GOG-User...

On one hand it's a language thing where people are used to using words like "buy" when they exchange money for an item/service, on the other I really wonder how many think through the implications of what would happen if they bought easily reproducible software/media as they buy a physical thing.

It's not really a license, since you buy the files, and get the files, and off you go. The license is for actually using the GOG infrastructure to get the files. It's like buying music on Bandcamp.

The fact that you get the files does not mean it’s not a license. You can download Windows 10 ISO from microsoft.com and it will boot just fine too.

There’s no license _verification_ in the files you’ll download - yes. You’ll be able to always install and play what you’ve downloaded - also yes. But _legally_ you don’t _own_ them.

Sure, but similarly, while you purchase a CD of a musical album, you don't own that either, right? I mean, you own the piece of media itself, but its contents are subject to copyright and such. Same deal here, I own the files from GOG in the sense that I can do whatever with the files, but I'm not allowed to breach copyright by for example sharing the files with the public.

So if this usage is just a license, not ownership, then yes, we don't own the GOG copies, but we don't own any other media either. I don't think that's what's being discussed here. If, then, we "own" the CD with the music on it, we similarly "own" the game we download from GOG.

You can always sell CDs without breaking copyright, you can't sell anything you acquired from GOG according to the TOS. A GOG licence is always personalised. A Book or Record is not.

"3.3 Your GOG account and GOG content are personal to you and cannot be shared with, sold, gifted or transferred to anyone else. Your access to and use of them is subject to GOG’s Privacy Policy and Code of Conduct which are updated or amended when necessary."

So far the TOS of GOG and Steam forbid resale of licensed items, if that's leagal or enforcable is another story.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First-sale_doctrine

That's a good point! I don't actually think there are any file-buying services which enable re-selling the files bought - if these files are not tied to physical media, that is.