Digital Ethics: CD Key Trade ?

[LeftEyeNine]

Purchasing a CD key is better than nothing ? Or nothing wrong with it ? Or you tend to render anything priced lower than the general retailers illegal ?

Edit: I thought out this discussion to be mainly revolving around online cd key retailers, rather than the second hand trade.

[Lemur]

I'm not familiar with online cd key retailers. What are they, exactly? Can you link to one, or will I get infected with a Russian porn virus?

[LeftEyeNine]

There are plenty, actually.

Like g2play.net, cdkeyhouse.com, keys4.me and a bunch of others alike.

[Lemur]

This is a whole new world to me. Reading through g2play's FAQ:

Why is G2PLAY usualy cheaper than Steam, EA Store etc.?

Obviously as an alternative store we have more friendly prices structure than official stores which are usualy bound to publishers who dictate their consumer prices. These shops have to follow the publishers instructions otherwise they will not recieve any deliveries from the pblishers. Well we do not have to listen to any instructios and we can set our own pricing.

Where do you buy your games from?

All games codes/keys are picked up through major distributors from their original retail boxes and scanned up into our database. We test all games before selling so we inform you about available languages, regional limitations (if any) and any other necessary instructions whenever needed.

So ... they're buying up licenses for games. Got it. But what about the actual digital media? Do they also provide the download, or are you expected to source out CoD4's install files on your own? I see that they're selling Shogun 2's license at a very slight discount. But then they're selling a bunch of CD keys for older games.

Hmmm. Has anybody had experience with this sort of service?

[LeftEyeNine]

I got Fallout New Vegas on Steam for about 20 USD (couple of hours ago) while Steam sells it for 50 USD.

Both are original, Steam-downloadable.

I wonder what's bloated, or what's wrong which is wisefully disguised (if so).

And this is not my first game purchased like that. I have yet to encounter any copyright infringement problems.

[Beskar]

Steam sells it at RRP, while you can go on Amazon for around 20USD for a boxed copy. If they are just selling keys, there is no fundamental issue with it, however there are some more serious issues.

Some of these keys may be illegally obtained, and where they are not, they may require you to illegally obtain a copy of the game (and a crack) for you to actually play them. This doesn't apply to Steam/no-CD required style games.

Also, from the description, they apparently buy the games from brick'n'motar stores, then scan the keys into their database to sell (throwing away boxed copy). But getting games through bulk-buying/wholesale through the chains is how they can avoid dealing with the publishers themselves who may dictate terms. Because this happens on a small scale (it will never be large scale) they usually get overlooked and don't attract too much attention.

Only real loser in all this is the customer, as some companies require photograph evidence of the CD-key (ie: Blizzard, and as you bought it online...). You can get similar or better deals at local stores or through stores like Amazon and Play.com, so it is weighing up the pro's and con's.