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Sources are indicating that Sony may be contacting game shops and informing them that the repurchase and resell of used PS3 games will be illegal.

Apparently, Sony is moving to adopt a licensing system that does not transfer ownership to the purchaser. Instead, the buyer of the game is only purchasing a license to play the game. The game will still be under the ownership of Sony, and thus will not be the buyer's property to sell.

The purpose of this system would be to eliminate video games exchanging hands several times, which may lower sales of new software from manufactures.

When contacted, Sony only said ""We have made all of the official announcements at E3 and cannot make any further comments at this time. We will be announcing more news running up to PlayStation 3's launch."

More details to come!

This sucks!

Actually, you never "own" any game you buy. Yes, you end up with a disc, which you do own, but the content has been licensed for your use. The game always remains under the ownership of the copyright holder (author/publisher).

But that's just a technicality. They are still free to only sell copies with a license that forces you into not being able to resell. Whether this would ever hold up in court is another matter altogether. The right of first sale generally prohibits the copyright holder from collecting money on anything but the first sale. In other words, they get all the money when you first buy it, but afterwords you're free to sell it and they have no say in the matter. If this wasn't the case, selling books and CD's would be illegal too.

This is a pretty well solidified item in copyright law. It's something that's really good for consumers. It would be nice to say that it would surely hold up in court and that Sony can't do this. Unfortunately, with the erosion of consumer's rights in respect to copyright law over the past 8 years or so, nothing seems safe.

On a technical note as well, how would they stop people from reselling? They'd have to have some system to tie each copy with a particular system, just like MS does with Windows XP. This could also mean that you wouldn't be able to bring the disc over to a friends house (or even loan it to them) since it wouldn't be playable on their machine.

Also, would Sony really do this? I for one would never buy a PS3 if I couldn't buy used games. And I mean never. I love the $20 classic games, but I love buying a used game from a couple of years ago for <$5 even more. This would alienate a lot of people. Sales could well drop if they did this. And with no re-sale value, will people be willing to pay $50 - $60 for a game still? It all sounds like a bad move, and it doesn't make a whole of sense as to why they'd do it. On the other hand, this is the same company who essentially installed root kits on people's computers. If it weren't for all the bad PR is instantly generated, they'd probably still be doing it too!

If they do it(which I dont think they will) Ps3 will fail.

Lucas, that's a very well put together post. You should post more often!

As for how they can do it. Short of tieing each copy to a system (which is possible with the PS3's capabilites), Sony can strongarm resell companies like EB and Gamestop to not buy or sell secondhand software, under the threat of removing new PS3 hardware and software from their stores.

Will they really do it? If ANY company were to ever do it, it would be Sony. They always try to push their own proprietary format (Betamax, Memory Stick, Blu-Ray, etc) and they are always the first to try some shady copywrite protection methods, such as those root kits.

I do agree with Maddocks, though. If Sony does this, the PS3 will not do very well.

Looking it over, I do not have one single item in my house with the Sony name brand on it, except for maybe a few DVDs (which probably won't let me skip the previews!). If they are not careful with negative PR on stuff like this, more and more people will have the same opionon I do of them.

I'm mostly just a copyright buff really..

I definitely agree that it would probably end up hurting them more than helping them. But when you're a huge corporation worth billions, you can throw an awful lot into doing stupid things

(and those DVD's where you can't skip the preview are the worst...)

ANother fault by SOny.

perhaps this is just another way for sony to keep money flowing in, since they've realize the PS3 isn't gonna be the barn burner they thought. i mean when you have a 600 dollor system, you gotta squeeze every cent you can out of the public...

now for how i really feel....i always thought the Nazi's were mainly from Germany...I guess several of those former WW2 tirants must be bigshots over at Sony.

What's next. You pay Sony $600 and get to keep the system, but its really on lease and you can only sell it back to them. (Value depreciates with Model Version.)

And then they will have v825.7 PS3 Slimline just so they can devalue your system. Just a hypothetical, but the war between gaming companies and gamers has been on the rise since ROMs became popular.

I just hope Sony knows who they are dealing with.

wasnt this rumor already crushed by sony a while ago?

THAT SUX~!!!!!
BOOOOOOOO!!!!

-Chris

Either way, Sony cant stop the masses. I bet they will still be on Ebay.

I was never going to get a ps3 and that's because: SONY SUCKS!
especialy so if this rumor is actually true.

Yeah i read this somewhere and it said the rumor was already dealt with by sony

ahh well...
they would deny something like that... even nintendo denied tp being on the wii to start with.

I think Sony will have it tough all over. I mean their blue ray dvd players are already double the price of HDDVD players and they're coming out with one of the most expensive VIDEO GAME systems every. Mind you i write video game systems. I remember back in the day when 600 bucks could get you an experienced hitman on loan, a ford pinto (mint condition), and Anna Nicole cooking me breakfast for a week.

Thing is it wouldnt work unless they burned the systems code into the blue ray disc or forced you to go online every time you play a game.

Even though this is a rumor, THIS HAS GOT TO BE THE DUMBEST THING SONY HAS EVER DONE BESIDES THE $600 PRICE TAG!!! What are they thinking. No resells thats got to be the dumbest thing I've ever herd in the gaming world, what if I grow bored of a game then what? Just keep it forever I guess.

Well $ony have already patented a tech with can link disks to a specific system, so if they actually have a prototype of the tech and it works,
well this is how i see it going down,

PS3 released, games can work on multiple systems, ooo look 3-5 months down the line,
SONY " were not selling enough games to justify loosing money on a $600 system, what's happening,"
SONY2 " erm people are selling our games second hand cus there no good, apart from MGS and GT5/6/7/8, which have broken sales records."
SONY "broken sales records?"
SONY2 " yep there has been one copy sold for each ps3 sold."
SONY " wow, how many is that"
SONY2 "erm, 100'000 units *cring*"
SONY "your fired."
SONY2 " well before you do anything rash, like fire me, i do have an idea."
SONY "really whats that then"
SONY2 "we have this tech which ties game disks to indivitual consols."
SONY " sweet, does it work."
SONY2 " yeah but it can only be put on new games."
SONY " do it, do it, do it, then those fools who bought our cheep Blue Ray player will have to buy a $60-70 game if they wanna try it, and as we encourage quantity instead of quallity games some idiots will buy the rubbish"
SONY2 "yeah, consider it done. but isn't if funny how blue ray movies didn't take off, oh well, atleast UMD moves are selling more than ever"
SONY " yeah at $2 each. hmmm"

ok ok ok but this is how I see it, didn't say i can see the future

lol this is funny Sony=2 time console war winner next console war=3rd place... and sooner than we think, Microsoft and Nintendo will be selling their consoles in peace and not fighting with each other... I agree with Black-Echo, SONY SUCKS!!!