Aug 18, 2026
Amazon took away your ability to own books on your Kindle.
Amazon took away your ability to own books on your Kindle.
Ubisoft killed a game you bought, even though the PHYSICAL COPY promised access until 2099.
Ubisoft released The Crew in 2014 as an online-only racing game, and according to court filings, physical copies came with activation codes good through 2099. On March 31, 2024, Ubisoft shut down the game's servers, making it unplayable even in single-player mode, and days later removed it from owners' libraries with no refund or offline patch. When customers sued, Ubisoft argued they had only bought a limited license to access the game. The backlash sparked Stop Killing Games, which gathered over 1.3 million signatures pushing for an EU review, and France's largest consumer group is now suing Ubisoft.
Published Aug 24, 2026
What happened
Starting in 2014, Ubisoft sold The Crew, an online-only racing game that people thought they bought outright, and supported it for nearly a decade.
The physical copy came with an activation code good through 2099, according to court filings, implying that people who bought the disc would be able to play the game for years to come.
On March 31, 2024, Ubisoft made the game completely unplayable—even in single-player mode—by shutting down it's servers.
Days later, Ubisoft went further by pulling the game from owners' libraries. The company did not offer a refund or an offline patch to allow gamers to continue playing the game they bought.
When customers sued, Ubisoft argued in court that they never bought a game at all, only a "limited license to access" that it could switch off whenever it wanted.
The backlash launched Stop Killing Games, which gathered over 1.3 million signatures to force an EU review, and France's biggest consumer group is now suing Ubisoft in a case that could redefine digital ownership.
Ubisoft took millions of dollars for a game, then switched it off and told a court the buyers never owned it in the first place. If a company can dictate how long you get to use your game, you don't own it.
FULU's takeaway
Ubisoft sold physical copies with activation codes good through 2099, shut the game down 75 years early, offered no refund or offline patch, and then argued in court that customers never bought anything at all.
Why this is a law problem
Most of these entries involve a digital lock guarding copyrighted software, and a lock like that sits under Section 1201 of the DMCA, 17 U.S.C. 1201. Subsection 1201(a)(1) makes it unlawful to bypass a lock that controls access to a copyrighted work, even when no copyright is infringed. Subsections 1201(a)(2) and 1201(b)(1) separately ban making or distributing the tools that do the bypassing.
Every three years the Librarian of Congress can exempt narrow classes of uses from the first ban. An exemption expires after three years and has to be re-argued, and the rulemaking has no authority over the tool bans, so a granted exemption still leaves no lawful supplier for the means to use it. FULU exists to reform or revoke this statute.
If you want this law changed, donations fund the work. FULU is a 501(c)(4). Donations to FULU are not tax-deductible, which is the tradeoff for being able to lobby without a limit.
Nothing on these pages says any company named here violated Section 1201. FULU is not a law firm, and this is not legal advice.
The original post
The slides below are the originals as posted. Where a slide and the text on this page disagree, go by the text; the text is the corrected, sourced record. Some slides also print an old wiki address that no longer works. The links on this page are current.
Originally published as an Instagram carousel on Aug 24, 2026: See Instagram post.
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Weber's killing your June oven's app and still selling subscriptions for it.
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