670
This should be illegal
(lemmy.world)
This should be illegal, companies should be forced to open-source games (or at least provide the code to people who bought it) if they decide to discontinue it, so people can preserve it on their own.
My proposal is for a mandated label on software and hardware to indicate that it will stop working when some online service goes offline.
And then what? Corporations will just slap a disclaimer on their products informing you of said condition and that you need to agree, understand and accept these terms and conditions and call it a day.
Aye, but forcing them to put a clear "We support this until this date" label will make that a mandated part of their marketed.
That or, you know, force companies to release server software when they sunset support for their product. That would also be nice.
Which is why we need meaningful consumer protections around this. Something with teeth to force publishers to back these sorts of things.
I feel like lack of ownership of more and more things in our lives is a sign of problems. Sure, this is just a silly game. But this kind of shit is already hitting cars.
And then products without that label would gain at least a little a bit of market share. Most people still buy inefficient fridges because they are shinier, but at least a few read those yellow labels mandated by law and choose the more efficient ones.
Ironically Nintendo sort of did that on physical boxes for their consoles that was actually just a download key in a cartridge