- Sony’s legal team claims digital media cannot be treated like physical property, arguing that true ownership of an identical file would prevent selling it to anyone else.
- Unlike physical discs, digital licenses prevent players from reselling or lending games, leaving them at risk of losing access down the road.
- Sony may eventually change store buttons from “buy” to “acquire a license.”
Sony is once again at the center of a growing debate over digital game ownership. The company has filed its first response to a class-action lawsuit in California, arguing that consumers should reasonably understand that clicking “buy” on the PlayStation Store does not mean they are purchasing ownership of a video game, but rather obtaining a license to use it.
The case began on June 18th at the Northern District Court of California. On that date, Edward Heycock, Andrew Garcia, Jason Mendoza, and John Salinas filed a class-action lawsuit against Sony Corporation of America and Sony Interactive Entertainment. The plaintiffs claim that the PlayStation Store fails to clearly and conspicuously indicate that downloadable video games are licenses rather than products that the buyer acquires.
The key issue is California’s AB 2426. This regulation permits the use of terms such as “purchase” or “acquire” for digital goods, but requires the establishment to clearly and publicly disclose that the purchase merely provides a license, or that the customer expressly agrees to this. Furthermore, this notice should be separate from the terms and conditions. Yes, those millions of paragraphs in small type that none of us read but are required to accept.
Regardless, Sony claims that it already meets these requirements through the selling of digital games. Currently, during checkout, the PlayStation Store shows a warning noting that purchasing a digital product involves a license subject to the Software Product License Agreement. Its lawyers also note that both the Terms of Service and this agreement state that the program is “licensed, not sold.” However, the plaintiffs say that this information is hidden too deeply within legal jargon, while the interface continues to employ plainly commercial terms such as “Buy Now” or “Confirm Purchase.”
Sony explains why they consider traditional ownership of a digital copy implausible. According to their lawyers, a digital file does not have the same inherent scarcity as a physical object, and that is why a digital transaction should not be interpreted under the same traditional concept of ownership.
Sony even highlighted Resident Evil: Requiem as an example. Jason Mendoza claimed to have digitally acquired the game on February 14th, while Edward Heycock did the same just two weeks later. According to Sony’s claim, if Jason had purchased “ownership” of the game on the 14th, Sony would not have been allowed to sell it to Edward several weeks later. This view will most likely continue to be debated, because purchasing a copy of a product, whether physical or digital, does not imply gaining intellectual property rights to the entire work.
The absence of physical media adds to the controversy. This will exacerbate the matter, as customers will be unable to sell the game they have purchased because it is simply a license. They will also be unable to lend it, and who knows if they will eventually lose the game they have already paid for.
That’s why Xbox has introduced a mechanism that allows customers to use the physical format to generate a digital license for the game, which can subsequently be used on both current consoles and the next Xbox Project Helix. On the other hand, PlayStation Store may start replacing the “buy” button with “acquire a license.”
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[Editor-in-Chief]
Sajjad Hussain is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Tech4Gamers.com. Apart from the Tech and Gaming scene, Sajjad is a Seasonal banker who has delivered multi-million dollar projects as an IT Project Manager and works as a freelancer to provide professional services to corporate giants and emerging startups in the IT space.
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