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Comment by meritt | Hacker News Reader

Exactly how is it the consumers fault for Microsoft deciding to restrict lending/sharing/etc of digital copies?

Because previously, you could lend/share/give digital copies and the fact that the xbox connected every 24 hours could verify the license. Now, without the 24hr check lending will not be allowed. (I could lend all of my games to Bob, then Bob simply never connects to the net and is able to play them indefinitely)

Why couldn't they make it so the 24hr check still exists, but only for validating shared games. Traditional disc/downloads could continue working just as they do already.

From their statement it seems like disk-based lending will work exactly how it does in the past. You give your friend the disk, and he plays it. This seems to be what most gamers want.

They could divide users in two camps - those who want the old system and those who want the new system. If buying used games is good for you (e.g. you are living in country with less income than average American), don't enable the feature. If you like digital sharing, enable it.

IMHO, their proposed system is OK, but it should be opt-in, not opt-out. I mean to buy a lot of games and I have zero interest in playing online. Why should I care about that anyway? 24-hour check is...let's be honest and just say it is limiting.

The gaming industry seems to be moving in the direction of the movie/music industry where they place completely unnecessary restrictions on the digital content they sell and blame their customers for it being there while all the meantime they don't actually ever produce anything I want to buy.

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