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Comment by redprince | Hacker News Reader

> taking away ownership of a product we paid for

If you should ever bother too look into your end user license agreements (EULA), you'd know you never owned anything to begin with. Nothing was ever sold to you. You acquired a license to use the product under the specified terms set forth in the EULA. If the terms of this license agreement don't sit right with you, I suggest you don't take the deal.

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EULAs are nearly worthless where I live though, so actually if it says "buy" the product is bought not rented, no matter what the EULA says.

And what exactly have you bought then? I mean beyond hopefully a physical medium, the right to use that software in perpetuity and to transfer that software to others?

You mean like a book? Yes, that would be a natural assumption.

Every time this comes up someone in the comments pops up to smugly remind us that the EULA says we, as consumers, don't have rights. Why are you like this? Everyone knows we don't have rights. That's why we're complaining.

You clearly have rights and you clearly have a choice: You can for example say no to this kind of software and not license it. You could also accept that you will only be able to use the software fully for a limited time and be fine with paying for that.

What is striking me as quite disingenuous though is the loud complaining when the manufacturer does what was made clear right from the start. As if somehow a betrayal or theft was happening here which clearly isn't the case.

Ahh yes, EULAs are known for their stark clarity and ease of reading and understanding. They totally do not employ any dark patterns or intentionally mislead people. That would never happen.

Any agreement can't supersede laws. At least in my country. So I don't really care whatever EULA says, when I have bought something, and it was taken from me, I want it back or a refund.

Is it the EU? A lot of people feel that the particular action of Ubisoft of shutting down their online service and thus making their game unplayable should violate some EU law, but I can't find anyone actually pointing to a particular law.

If the law ever changes you may have a better chance. Or such games will not be published in the first place.

I haven't read it, but someone else here mentioned Directive (EU) 2019/770 (... on certain aspects concerning contracts for the supply of digital content and digital services)

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