Activating a second hand product

[Newbie Nick]

Can someone advise on this issue please? I recently bought Shogun 2 from someone but didn't realise one of the two discs was missing. I thought I might be able to activate the game on Steam with the CD key but I get the message that the game is already registered to another Steam account. I can't track down the person who sold me the game but if their account shows they don't play the game anymore or haven't played for ages, will Steam deactivate the Shogun 2 registration so I can register it and download the game from Steam? I appreciate I have no proof of purchase but I live in hope that I can do this! Thanks for any advice.

[Red Shift]

No such luck, once a games registered to an account, thats it. You got conned. I hope it wasnt an expensive lesson for you.

[Cathulhu]

Steam/Valve does not condone or support second hand markets in any way as they don't get any profit out of it. Your copy is useless, get your money back.

[Surah]

As said above, you can't activate used games. Once a Steam key has been activated on an account, it cannot be reused. If you purchased the item on ebay and they stated the game was either new or that the key was unused then you may be able to get a refund via Paypal.

No guarantee there but that's probably your best bet. If you didn't purchase on there then you're probably out of luck.

[TROWW]

Once a Steam key has been activated on an account, it cannot be reuse

[The Giving One]

By any chance are these the same issues as your other thread ? I don't see where you mentioned this before there. Are those games also having the same problem with missing disks ?

http://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/1/487870763307994263/

[Muppet among Puppets]

One cd is missing and the key is used, give it back

[Newbie Nick]

Thanks everyone. Hi The Giving One. No this is entirely different. I purchased the other games from retail stores brand new.

[RiO]

Originally posted by Cathulhu:

Steam/Valve does not condone or support second hand markets in any way as they don't get any profit out of it. Your copy is useless, get your money back.

Wonder what the EU courts have to say about that though.

Would make for an interesting case, considering previous statements regarding second hand software, transfer of licenses and companies being required to give the same level of support and service to the second owner as they did to the first.

Hopefully Valve is brewing something internally to resolve that little problem in the short run, so that it won't come back to bite them in the rear.

[Muppet among Puppets]

Originally posted by RiO:

Wonder what the EU courts have to say about that though.

There was even a cd missing.....

[RiO]

Originally posted by Muppet among Puppets:

Originally posted by RiO:

Wonder what the EU courts have to say about that though.

There was even a cd missing.....

It's the transfer of the license that is connected with the physical medium that matters, iirc. Not the state or completeness of the physical medium itself.

[Pheace]

Originally posted by RiO:

Would make for an interesting case, considering previous statements regarding second hand software, transfer of licenses and companies being required to give the same level of support and service to the second owner as they did to the first.

Already tried in court and Valve came out the winner in that courtcase, at the moment it's in the air whether it would even apply to Video games.

[RiO]

Originally posted by Pheace:

Originally posted by RiO:

Would make for an interesting case, considering previous statements regarding second hand software, transfer of licenses and companies being required to give the same level of support and service to the second owner as they did to the first.

Already tried in court and Valve came out the winner in that courtcase, at the moment it's in the air whether it would even apply to Video games.

The german consumer authority case? Valve won on a technicality, iirc, because the germans filed the wrong charges.

[valwetochuje]

I'm start no problem

[Pheace]

Originally posted by RiO:

The german consumer authority case? Valve won on a technicality, iirc, because the germans filed the wrong charges.

First I hear of that, got a link?

[RiO]

Originally posted by Pheace:

Originally posted by RiO:

The german consumer authority case? Valve won on a technicality, iirc, because the germans filed the wrong charges.

First I hear of that, got a link?

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2014/02/10/german-court-rules-against-rights-to-resell-steam-games/

While the EU court rulings have decided that software falls under the doctrine of exhaustion and it should be made possible to resell, there's a slight technicality that video games carry additional audio/visual components that make them more than just software.

The doctrine of exhaustion applies equally well to music CDs, or to BlueRay or DVD movies. However, there is no EU court ruling that extends it specifically to digital movie and audio content, like is the case with software.

And Valve won the case on that technicality.


Note that this is also why the case of resale of a disc-based production and attempting to re-register the key with Steam, is so interesting. In this case you do have a physical product to which doctrine of exhaustion applies and Valve is acting as a service provider to the second hand owner that should by law have all the same rights as the first owner.

Question is: does that include the right to make use of Steam's services to register the game to the Steam account and benefit from downloading & installing the game anywhere without needing the physical medium?

(As always; laws and regulations on digital content are murky at best.)