Created after Ubisoft shut down the servers of the racing game The Crew, the Stop Killing Games movement faces legal obstacles that cast doubt on its ability to bring about lasting legislative changes, according to digital law experts.
The mobilization, which received broad community support and gained momentum with the initiative "Time to Sue Sony," runs into the gap between consumer expectations and the legal and technological reality.
Expert's view
Researcher Celia Pontin, a video game policy specialist at the consultancy Flux Digital Policy, says the participants' demands may be legally impossible to meet.
The organizers argue that a purchased product should not "self-destruct" when the publisher decides to shut down the servers. However, lawyers point out that the terms of service and current legislation give companies the freedom to decide the life cycle of online games, treating digital purchases as a temporary access license, not as the acquisition of a good.
Pontin stresses that modern games are a complex web of interconnected copyrights, involving source code, soundtracks, actors' voices, and graphic elements. Therefore, transferring discontinued games to the community or allowing private servers would face enormous legal barriers that would only be overcome with an unprecedented revolution in intellectual property legislation.
Although European Union institutions and lawmakers discuss the problem of the end of digital services, the resistance of European publishers and the rigidity of the laws make a complete victory for players unlikely.
