The ECI “Stop killing video games” was accepted as having reached its one million signature threshold earlier this year. The initiative seeks to prevent the remote disabling of videogames by their publishers. They also say, this prohibition can be met by providing means for the game to continue functioning independent of publisher. This article looks at the Commission response, the campaign’s next steps and questions the Commission’s strategy in responding to ECIs.
The Commission and Parliament’s engagement with the campaign is reported on their web site. EU law requires that the Commission react to successfully ECIs. This Commission have decided that the goals of the ECI cannot be legislated for but propose to develop a code of conduct in conjunction with the industry. They also seem to think that current consumer rights are helpful; personally I don’t see it.
How has this response been received, in the words of Captain Rum, “Opinion be divided”. This seems disappointing for those for whom the central claim for justice is that people think they have bought the game just to find that it can be taken away. Some in the campaign argue that this response is better than might have been expected.
The campaign also documents the Commission’s consultation with the industry including senior officers of Ubisoft leading to the following story at Yahoo. The campaign argues that the timing suggests a causality. Ubisoft is a French company.
Despite the commission response, the campaign plans to get amendments to the “Digital Fairness Act” tabled in the European Parliament. Good luck to them.
On an adjacent issue, campaigning comrades in CTOE have noticed an increasing reticence of the Commission to react to successful ECIs which is one of the few radical democracy measures available within the European Union. CTOEs attention since the start of the Commission’s mandate has been focused on the petitions to develop human rights law but the precedent is the “End the Cage Age” petition which has been buried by the Commission arguably at the behest of industrial farming industry. Taken together with the aggressive use of Article 122 emergency powers and “Omnibus” bills which minimise citizen consultation and row back on anti-climate change regulation and privacy rights.
I wish the campaign well and will continue to work with Citizens Takeover to build a stronger and more accountable democracy within the European Union.