The ongoing ambiguity and dubious DRM practices of Microsoft at the moment are in some ways reaching long awaited conclusions. On Twitter, the official Xbox support account told one user that if you are banned from Xbox Live, you “will forfeit the licenses to any games that have licenses tied to it.” It’s okay though, because it’s “listed in the ToU (terms of use).”
You’d be right in pointing out that this isn’t far from Valve’s model – however, Steam accounts are never banned for etiquette or conduct reasons relating to player interaction. It is common for YouTuber’s to have Xbox Live accounts banned for ‘griefing’ videos, popular on the net.
Support wouldn’t clarify disk-based games being banned, or if they could be re-redeemed on a new account, but I think it’s fairly safe to say that there will be long loop-holes – if any – in getting your serial-bound disk-based games redeemed on new accounts. That said, it isn’t entirely clear if any disk-based games would be bound to accounts, but Microsoft’s restrictions on the sale of second hand games will somehow, at least, identify the use of disks to certain user accounts.
It’s reasonable to conclude that in some cases, the use of disk-based games will be withheld upon the banning of your Xbox Live account.
It should also be noted that any family members who hold their own active accounts should, in theory, lose the right to play games that are tied to your account, and shared with them, upon your account being banned.
The moral of the story is this: don’t be mean on Xbox Live, and follow the terms of use stringently, unless you want to lose access to all your games.
That said, Microsoft still need to release a clarification statement on all things DRM, and related to the ToU and breaches of it. Hopefully we’ll have a user friendly info-graphic at some point, explaining exactly what rights we have – and to what extent – for our purchased products.
At this point, many people are asking: do we purchase our games to own? Or do we simply purchase the legal right to play them? Is this indefinite rental, or is it ownership?
Wow...Can they do this? Isn't this illegal? Its basically like they take away the games you have bought!
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