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Ubisoft says you "cannot complain" it shut down The Crew because you never actually owned it, and you weren't "deceived" by the lack of an offline version (www.gamesradar.com)

submitted 2 weeks ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Full title: Ubisoft says you "cannot complain" it shut down The Crew because you never actually owned it, and you weren't "deceived" by the lack of an offline version "to access a decade-old, discontinued video game"

Ubisoft's lawyers have responded to a class action lawsuit over the shutdown of The Crew, arguing that it was always clear that you didn't own the game and calling for a dismissal of the case outright.

The class action was filed in November 2024, and Ubisoft's response came in February 2025, though it's only come to the public's attention now courtesy of Polygon. The full response from Ubisoft attorney Steven A. Marenberg picks apart the claims of plaintiffs Matthew Cassell and Alan Liu piece by piece, but the most common refrain is that The Crew's box made clear both that the game required an internet connection and that Ubisoft retained the right to revoke access "to one or more specific online features" with a 30-day notice at its own discretion.

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (6 children)

Every AAA game company's have been for 30 years and still currently are arguing this in courts all the time.

Are you sure about that? Because it isn't theft, it's copyright infringement.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (5 children)

unauthorized use, sale, or distribution of ip is ip theft.

when it comes to software, basically , unless your software is distributed under some kind MIT or GPL or other copyleft liscense... all of the software legally is ip, and using it in an unauthorized manner is copyright infringement... which is also referred to as ip theft.

so yes, ip theft is a form of theft, and gaming companies and lawyers and other lawyers have been successfully suing other people and other companies into oblivion over this basically since the industry began.

have you just never head of the term 'ip theft'?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

copyright is a type of intellectual property, an area of law distinct from that which covers robbery or theft, offenses related only to tangible property.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

I mean, I can be as much of a pedant as you and post an unsourced definition of 'ip theft' ... or maybe you could just admit you'd never heard of the term 'ip theft', or are unaware of its use.

Its a pretty commonly used term, especially amongst government regulatory and business organizations, as well as academics who study policy, in the US.

The term itself, its phrasing, is intentionally constructed to frame copyright infringement as a form of theft, stealing something that doesn't belong to you.

The psychological framing of the term is meant to frame losses from someone committing copyright infringement against you as equivalent to losses from being robbed.

The entire point of the usage of this term is to mold public perception.

Here's some examples where very prominent US institutions/organizations use some construction or variation of 'ip theft' as an umbrella term to refer to all kinds of copyright, trademark and/or patent infringement:

FBI

https://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/countering-the-growing-intellectual-property-theft-threat

KPMG (huge business consulting group)

https://kpmg.com/us/en/articles/2022/theft-intellectual-property.html

DHS (Homeland Security)

https://www.dhs.gov/intellectual-property-rights

IPRC (Intellectual Property Rights Center)

https://www.iprcenter.gov/

And finally, literally IPTheft.org, which basically functions as an all-in-one training/resource hub that connects business people to all kinds of resources to report when they have suffered... IP theft.

https://www.iptheft.org/

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 weeks ago

The claim was that Ubisoft called piracy "theft". Have they done that, or not?

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