I know we're not there yet, but if they roll out this new DRM to older modules, the DCS A10C, DCS BS2, and FC3 in my case, can I request for a refund of my modules as they've changed the terms AFTER my purchase of said modules and I do not agree with the new terms?

Just a hypothetical but serious question.

I seriously doubt it.

-Ice,

Stated by Moderators, so not an offical TFC/ED employee, once you activate a product, you are unable to receive a refund.


I would like to see an official response from an actual upper level TFC/ED employee.

I am not an attorney.
If it gets nasty, I suspect there will be a class action suite against them and a court of law will most likely rule in the favor of the consumer to reward refunds or restore the product back to the state of purchase. Unless, there is some hidden language I can not find.

I am only under the assumptions that, TFC/ED had their legal council advise them if they could legally, impose the new DRM retroactively, to products purchased under different terms of agreement. I would assume they had the "go" from their legal council before making a public statement saying they will retroactively applying the new DRM.

If not, that was a big no no

In any business, your legal council is your best friend when making any decisions

Yea... they thought of that ...

"2. OWNERSHIP

2.1 The Program is licensed for your use. This Licence confers no title or ownership in the Program and should not be construed as a sale of any rights in the Program. This Licence shall also apply to any patches or updates you may obtain from TFC for the Program."

So you have agreed to accept any patch, and I think DRM is a "patch" - at least if you ask them.

Well, there is a difference between doing something because it's legal and doing something because they think they can get away with it..... and companies are known to do both.

I don't see it. It talks about the program; I'm talking about the DRM for the program.

Well, "any patches or updates" covers pretty much. That was the EULA which is seen when buying a module.

But yea, of course I agree that they should refund modules, because they and only they changed the terms after the purchase was made.

Keep in mind that terms of services are not necessarily valid legally depending on the country in which you made the purchase. For example, in Australia the Australian Consumer Law would typically protect the consumers against the case where a product functionality has been altered after the purchase refundable if the change has rendered the product unusable. So if the DRM suddenly requires you to be online every 3 days while it didn't before, you'd be entitled to ask for a refund by arguing to you can't meet that requirement whilst it wasn't part of the product at the time of purchase. No ToS can override the Australian Consumer Law, and companies such as Valve have been bitten hard trying to ignore refund entitlements here. But as far as I understand this is more the exception rather than the rule in terms of consumer protection.

This topic is certainly making me wonder what I should do about that. In addition the the DRM, there is the argument that DCS products are still actually not working as advertised years ago... (I'm looking at you multi crew multiplayer for the Huey - my best mate only bought that module for this reason, and needless to say he hasn't gone back to DCS since then...)

Well, as leaf pointed out HERE, ED is on shaky ground with this one.