This is in reference to a post titled Amazon Prime Video is able to remove a video from your library after purchase.. The title is kind of self-explanatory and piracy was brought up in the comments. Someone mentioned GOG and Steam granting users indefinite licenses to users regardless of whether or not the game is still being sold.
While I could see that with GOG something tells me that's probably not the case with Steam but I can't find a specific quote to back it up. I can't seem to find an instance of them removing a game from someone's library even when a game was banned in a country like in the case of Disco Elysium and Rimworld being banned in Australia.
I couldn't see Valve removing games from people's libraries without a good reason due to the amount of backlash that would cause but maybe under specific circumstances they would.
On a similar note I was curious if anything in the terms and conditions talks about Steam emulators. There's a section it that says:
“… host or provide matchmaking services for the Content and Services or emulate or redirect the communication protocols used by Valve in any network feature of the Content and Services, through protocol emulation, tunneling, modifying or adding components to the Content and Services …”
But I am not sure if I am misunderstanding what it's trying to get across.
I looked through a majority of the Steam Subscriber Agreement but it can be a bit hard to decipher. There could also be comments from Valve staff elsewhere like on Twitter or Reddit that may at least shown their thoughts on the matter.
This might be a bit boring for a lot of people but I am curious about the DRM behind Steam. I feel like people have placed a lot of trust and money into Valve and Steam so I am curious about potential worst case scenarios.
The full section G (except iii):
First of all I'm not a lawyer, so don't take any of the following seriously.
[1] is interesting, because in many jurisdictions some of the mentioned restrictions are allowed, so they can be safely ignored. E.g. reverse engineering programs running on your own device is legal in the EU [3].
At [2] Valve writes it is forbidden to:
I don't know exactly what they mean with "Content and Services", do they include the game itself with this statement? Steam games usually have a SDK from Valve in them, so probably yes.
Protocol redirection has to be allowed else they could go after routers etc. But they specifiy "protocol emulation", which is how goldberg works if I understand correctly. The reverse engeering of the protocol is probably allowed, if it is done purely by observation.
I really have no idea if the restriction on emulating protocols is legal. Though if it was illegal I bet Nintendo would have already gone after Switch emulators.
Luckily there aren't any lawsuits against emulators since that could set a bad precedent for the entire software industry. A similar bad case was Oracle v. Google on Java, which luckily was in favor of Google (not sure I'd ever say that ;D).
And if someone doesn't agree to the terms of service since they don't use Steam, they might be in the clear. Obviously they'd have to obtain a copy of the game, which would most probably be illegal.
[3] https://www.vidstromlabs.com/blog/the-legal-boundaries-of-reverse-engineering-in-the-eu/
Valve probably includes the clause about removing games from your library because of illegal games (for whatever reason, e.g. someone uploaded without being the rightholder) and malware. If a developer turns evil it makes sense to remove the game and the developer from the platform. Usually if a game is no longer sold because of licences running out (car games, ...), Valve keeps the games in the library of people who already bought it, since the licence covers it.
I judge companies according to their (probable) track record. Valve has been great for the most part and I don't see it changing for the forseeable future with GabeN in charge. If the company changes ownership (going public, getting bought etc) I'm definitly going to be more careful and backup the games. Thanks to Goldberg they can still be played even if Steam was shutting down.
Sorry for the big wall of text, I'm just reading and trying to collect my thoughts and understanding of the matter. It's a great question though. If you've read it actually through I'm glad if you can point out any errors or add any thoughts. As I said, I'm a layman.
No worries you made some good points. I was curious about the Content and Services myself. I felt like I kind of hit a wall when encountering that and trying to learn more.
Someone else stated the emulator protocol section might be referring to Valve's functionality and network communications and if that's the case I feel like projects like X Link Kai that allow you to remotely play LAN games on various consoles would fall under that. I do feel like it's likely referring to things like the Goldberg emulator. I wonder if you talked about it enough in Steam forum threads if you would get banned or if it would be like all the guides out there for older games that require some kind of no-CD crack to run.