fruton wrote...
To those of you clamoring for refunds due to the face import bug, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but i'm pretty sure buying licenses don't get you covered buy the Sales of Goods Act (UK), and many other consumer laws in other countries.
essefar wrote...
Just a quick update that I'm not getting
answers from a quick and superficial internet search so I'll try and
take some time next week to do some proper research, read the terms of
sale, licence conditions and possibly-hopefully-relevant laws, and also
figure out what the relevant organisational bodies are and chase up an
official answer from them. If no-one else gets around to it first. What
fun! I'll report back - I have no problem with getting an eggy face in a
good cause
- but it might take some time.
In the meantime,
I'm sticking with my matter-of-fact approach. It's pretty clear what the
UK consumer protection laws on goods and services are trying to
achieve. If there is wriggle room for software, I don't suppose it's
because our law-makers got together and decided it was exempt - do
correct me i'm wrong! - but rather that software is a new-ish technology
product presented in a novel form (the licence) and that the law hasn't
caught up yet.
Well, I can't speak for other countries, but, in the UK, there's the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999. This holds that:
A contractual term which has not been individually negotiated shall be
regarded as unfair if, contrary to the requirement of good faith, it
causes a significant imbalance in the parties' rights and obligations
arising under the contract, to the detriment of the consumer.
It goes onto say that:
A term shall always be regarded as not having been individually
negotiated where it has been drafted in advance and the consumer has
therefore not been able to influence the substance of the term.
Obviously, a 'licence agreement' which has the effect of nullifying consumer protection laws as you haven't bought the game, merely licenced it, despite all appearances to the contrary, would fall foul of this bit of law.