You know this sort of thing has been going on for a long time now, since like, the days of early mmo's. It's almost always against the EULA, but people still do it.

I'm sure the account will get banned within days, if not sooner. I very much doubt it that Valve allows accounts to be sold like that. Unless, of course, the account name is only given out in secrecy, I suppose.

wow i have like 107 games on steam, a lot are AAA titles like fallout 3 bioshock and GTA 4, at least its reassuring to know that if things get desperate i wont have to resort to selling a kidney

What an idiot. They covered their asses with that EULA.

I'm pretty sure a lot of those games were in the recent holiday sales, but ofc he has them listed at full price to make it seem like he's spent much more than he really did. The negative feedback on ebay confirms my suspicions.

How the hell is this news? Selling Steam Accounts has been going on since the creation of Steam.

This's the review the buyer gave to the seller lol."Seller is a SCAMMER DONT BUY!"

So now, not only has the seller illegally sold his games on, he's got an angry customer and Steam have disabled his account. He'll probably have to give back the money and he won't have any games to play.
What a dumbass! LMAO!

This's like that guy who won a Beta code from Giantbomb at PAX and then tryed to sell on the code even though he didn't have it with him and he tryed to do it right next Actiblizzards section of the conference under. Under their noses, to put it lightly. lol.

seems like 1. buy huge steam deals for cheap.
2. go on ebay and put the retail prices, wait for someone to bite.
3. get found out as a scamming asshole.

Man scams eBay buyer. Where's captain obvious?

I wouldn't really call it the perfect loophole. It's only a decent one if you're interested in getting rid of all your games and Valve doesn't find out and ream your account with spiky gauntlet armored fist.

The license goes to the account. On a side note, the whole issues of "ownership" for the rights is a legal issue that has by and large not been addressed in the US courts. It does seem to me that eventually the courts will be forced to address the issue and methinks they will side with the customer on the rights of ownership. This is especially so given the companies always claim "theft" of property regarding IP so using that same logic the account owner has property and consequently the inherent right to sell it.

A friend of mine bought a steam account with MW 2 for 30 euro

What I don't understand is how the guys over at Steam could tell which account to buy. Anyone know? I mean it's not posted anywhere on the eBay listing.

I'm sure if you sell it on the quiet, say to a friend then Valve would be none the wiser.

@Turbofail

You know... you may have a point. In fact, let me check the resell value of my copy of The Witcher GOTY edition... $.75, huh? I bought it for $40 though... look, I know this is a great argument to make if you're not a PC gamer. But as a PC gamer, PC games have little to no resell value whatsoever. Especially since you do not know if the previous owner registered that copy you just bought and you might be locked out of the purchase. In other words, in theory there is real value in reselling your PC games when you're done... I just don't know a single place you can do it without hardcore fleecing.

@Xzyliac

It's been banned since the day Steam started. Seriously. Those End User License Agreements have some pretty important information... I suggest a policy to actually read them for all gamers. You'd be surprised how many people are readily agreeing to permanent system damage not being the fault of the developers just because they're too bored to read three pages.

But on the other note, as mentioned above, this guy got banned because he was stupid. Dumb, retarded, emotionally handicapped, and all sorts of "shitty criminal." Like the kind of idiot who shows ID to buy beer before robbing the liquor store kinds of dumb. Because people have been selling steam accounts for a while now. The unspoken rule is "don't waggle your rule-breaking cock in Valve's face and no biggie." There is a common practice for game exclusive steam accounts to sell for when you're done with the game.

This is what I hate about digital distribution.

Having been a ebayer for years all I can say is there are strict rules against selling shit like this. They'll ban you for selling gamesaves let alone a Steam account. I'd bet money at least one of the other accounts up for sale disappears

Most EULA agreements cover their asses on this issue... but I personally think that such a sale should be legal. :(

Did no one notice the history of feedback the "buyer" has left? Looks like this seller isn't getting anything sold anyway.
Link

It's pretty common for people to steal accounts and try to sell them as well. Happened to a friend once, but he got his account back before it could be sold off.

Jim, you should sell your account for like $10,000.

Yeah, I'm totally sure Steam is going to take stuff like this lying down. People that sell and buy MMO accounts are lower than pondscum, the people selling Steam and other DD accounts are no different. I hope Steam finds the seller and he gets sued, meanwhile I can just laugh at the user as he should have known what he was getting into.

Gamers have a grand difficulty understanding IPs and ownershop. If I write a story, design the game's art and the gameplay, that game is legally mine - I'm just letting you purchase a license to enjoy it. Its not yours and it never will be. You just have data on plastic, pages in a book - you don't own the intellectual property, no matter how much you feel you have a stake in i emotionally.

Simply put: The creators have rights, too.

@ the silent protagonist - whats the difference between selling digital distributions and selling a game to gamestop? absolutely nothing. if he sells the account its not like both people can play the game

@ sheppy

I'm pretty sure you would get a lot more than 75 cents, I have sold some PC games and got decent amounts of money for them.

That said I hardly ever sell games, I like to collect them. Which of course relates to the article because as a collector of boxed games you have control over your collection, you own the games no matter what the EULA says because no one can break in and take them legally and no one will take you to court for playing games you purchased and have a copy of.

Steam though? It's all an account, they can do what they want... Valve is in control of your games, not you. Same thing on Xbox Arcade and similar things.

Support consumer rights, buy your games in boxes, else I fear for the future.