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Valve given ultimatum by German consumer organization over EULA
Valve must respond by October 10 to a desist order from the Federation of German Consumer Organizations, otherwise the company faces a potential lawsuit. The Federation of German Consumer Organizations, or VZBV, wants Valve to change Steam's recently updated end-user license agreement (EULA), which prevents customers from bringing class-action lawsuits against the service.As Cinema Blend reports, the VZBV argues that users are coerced into agreeing to the updated EULA, because if they don't they lose access to their Steam accounts. The VZBV also wants Valve to enforce the European Court of Justice's ruling made in July, which states that authors cannot oppose their 'used' digital download software being resold.Cinema Blend notes a suspicion that Steam's updated EULA is designed to protect Valve from class-action lawsuits related to the EU ruling. The VZBV originally gave Valve until September 26 (today) to respond to its desist order, but the organization later extended the ultimatum to October 10. We've reached out to Valve for comment.
Facebook loses friends in Germany over privacy breaches
Before you've even sipped your morning brew, a regional German court has delivered yet another stern judgement affecting a multinational organization. This time it's Facebook back in the dock over the Friend Finder feature, which uploads a user's contact list to Zuckerberg's bunker without proper warning. Another offense involves the ownership of data -- any original photo or music track uploaded to Facebook supposedly belongs to the company and can be used however it likes, which has now been deemed to breach data protection laws. Someone ought to add this to the Harvard Student Handbook.
