this post was submitted on 13 May 2026
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Steam Hardware
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A place to discuss and support all Steam Hardware, including Steam Deck, Steam Machine, Steam Frame, and SteamOS in general.
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The problem is first sale doctrine applies to the physical media which carries the license of its own content.
The physical media is whatever is playing the content. The law doesn't specify the media.
1909, one year after the Supreme Court ruling: "Your honor, I know that the Supreme Court ruled that publishers can't add a shrink wrap license that prohibits cheap resale of copyrighted work but you see, I delivered the content on llamas where it was printed onto scrolls at the customer's home so the law doesn't apply. You wrote the laws thinking about trains and ships transporting books and I use neither."
No, the problem is that people believe "[concept] on a computer" is somehow magically different from "[concept] IRL" when it's not.
When you buy a game from Steam, you buy a game, not a license, and the First Sale Doctrine applies just as much as it does if you buy a board game from Walmart. Any claims to the contrary are simply lies, and any government support for such lies is simply tyranny.