←back to thread

Stop Killing Games

(www.stopkillinggames.com)
253 points MYEUHD | 1 comments | 02 Jul 25 16:45 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
Show context
andrecarini ◴[02 Jul 25 18:29 UTC] No.44447202[source]▶
Lots of bad takes in this thread. The whole idea behind this is just to stop defrauding customers that buy your software and then are left holding the bag. Nobody is asking for developers to keep running server infra for eternity.

Any of the following options are enough to satisfy this proposal:

- Put an expiration date on the storefront and make it clear that your software is not guaranteed to continue working after date X.

- Have your server source code (stripped down of proprietary stuff) ready for public release at EoL.

- Allow customers to reverse engineer the binaries and communication protocol after EoL.

- Package dedicated server binaries with the game and allow customers to connect to it via a LAN or direct IP option.

replies(11): >>44447344 #>>44447371 #>>44447378 #>>44447435 #>>44447585 #>>44447716 #>>44447754 #>>44448408 #>>44448690 #>>44449028 #>>44449951 #
1. 66fm472tjy7 ◴[02 Jul 25 20:52 UTC] No.44448690[source]▶

  Put an expiration date on the storefront and make it clear that your software is not guaranteed to continue working after date X
False, it says[0]

  providing reasonable means to continue functioning of said videogames without the involvement from the side of the publisher
It MUST be possible to continue playing the game using reasonable means. It is not sufficient to declare an EOL date.

  Have your server source code (stripped down of proprietary stuff) ready for public release at EoL
This would only be sufficient if the proprietary dependencies are reasonable easy to acquire.

  Allow customers to reverse engineer the binaries and communication protocol after EoL
I don't think this reverse engineering could currently be disallowed in the EU, so it would not be affected by the initiative.

  Package dedicated server binaries with the game
True, it would meet the requirements of the initiative, but it would be sufficient to provide the server after EOL.

----

[0] https://citizens-initiative.europa.eu/initiatives/details/20...