Question Digital Downloads & Banned Accounts

Fearns

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I've just had a completely random thought and wonder if anyone knows the answer, there is no background to my question it just randomly popped into my head whilst pouring a Captain Morgans Spice & Coke.

I have bought a fair few games recently from Russia & USA, what is the legal stance with digital purchases if your XBox Live account ever gets banned (not that I ever have or hopefully ever will be).

If you have a disc you can obviously create a new account and play the game from that, if it's a digital copy it's tied to your gamertag but am I correct in assuming that you legally own a licence to play the game as you have actually purchased it.

Like I said just a random thought I had and wondered what peoples thoughts were!!!!
 
It depends on why your account got banned, but generally you lose the licences to the games along with the account. It takes something really serious to get the account banned in that way though.
 
I would guess it's down to the severity of the ban. Something serious like piracy, fraud and you've lost it all. Other bans are temporary I believe.
 
^ Yep, it's only stuff like piracy, fraud, etc that would get you that type of ban anyway. Any other ban's are often just temporary or just from Live so you'd still have your games.
 
I'm currently temp banned for abusive messages apparently (sigh), and I don't have access to any of my content at all - everything is trial/demo if it's downloaded, no DLC loading, etc.
 
Isn't buying from other regions considered fraud in a way, as it goes against the ToS?
Remember the blanket bans in 2013 for those who were downloading free games from other regions?
Okay, those banned were also duplicating these games across multiple consoles, but it's still considered a breach of the ToS by circumventing the region restrictions to access cheap or free content outside of your own region.
Personally it's something I wouldn't risk, especially if I was paying for a lot of digital games.
 
I'm currently temp banned for abusive messages apparently (sigh), and I don't have access to any of my content at all - everything is trial/demo if it's downloaded, no DLC loading, etc.

That's interesting to know, I genuinely didn't think you'd lose access to content if the ban is temporary.
How long are you banned for? I got hit by that one a couple of times on the 360 despite me not actually playing online. I didn't have any digital content to worry about back then though.
 
Isn't buying from other regions considered fraud in a way, as it goes against the ToS?
Remember the blanket bans in 2013 for those who were downloading free games from other regions?
Okay, those banned were also duplicating these games across multiple consoles, but it's still considered a breach of the ToS by circumventing the region restrictions to access cheap or free content outside of your own region.
Personally it's something I wouldn't risk, especially if I was paying for a lot of digital games.
Things were different back in the 360 days, and there was much speculation the bans were for more than just region swapping.

The XB1 is region free unlike the 360, region swapping clearly isn't frowned on by MS. Well, its certainly not enforced anyway, even if it is.
 
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Isn't buying from other regions considered fraud in a way, as it goes against the ToS?
Remember the blanket bans in 2013 for those who were downloading free games from other regions?
Okay, those banned were also duplicating these games across multiple consoles

You're conflating two completely separate things there. The bans were not for downloading games from out of region.

I get the distinct impression that MS don't really care too much if people use loopholes to buy more cheaply. From. Their point of view, it's still a win as people are buying the games....

In answer to the OP's question, your licence to use the games you have downloaded will be conditional on compliance with MS's terms of service and will almost certainly give them carte blanche to ban you and rescind those licences if you transgress serious enough.

Given the PR backlash if MS was to do so en masse for anything but the most serious infractions, it's probably not too much of a worry (IMO at least)
 
You're conflating two completely separate things there. The bans were not for downloading games from out of region.

I thought the bans were partly for the out of region downloading.
I shat myself for about a month as I'd downloaded about 4 or 5 from other regions.
 
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Just had a nosey at the Code of Conduct page and this is at the very bottom:

UPON RECEIVING A PERMANENT SUSPENSION, ALL CONTENT LICENCES, GOLD MEMBERSHIP TIME AND MICROSOFT ACCOUNT BALANCE ASSOCIATED WITH THE SUSPENDED ACCOUNT ARE FORFEITED.

I'm a good boy so shouldn't be getting a ban, unless they find out about the 3 points I got for speeding over 10 years ago and never declared to the insurance company!!!!
 
But aren't any games tied to not only the Gamertag, but also the console, hence other users on that console can play the same games. Therefore, if your tag was banned, you could I assume in theory just create another and still play all the games on the same console.

I have 4 tags on mine for me, the wife and our kids, and they can access everything.

The problem would come if you ever changed the console I guess.
 
@lostsoul 301081There's no evidence of that, at least to my knowledge. I can't prove it of course but all the available empirical evidence suggests that other factors prompted the bans.

I, and a number of people I game with, used the loopholes to get free games out of region. None of us were banned.

I know of three people who were banned. Two accepted that they had duplicating licences across multiple consoles. The other was more cagey about it but I rather suspect he had been up to it too.

Like I said, I can't demonstrate the link conclusively - but there seems to be more to suggest that bans were promoted by other naughtiness rather than just region manipulation to get free games.
 
I thought the band were partly for the out of region downloading.
I shat myself for about a month as I'd downloaded about 4 or 5 from other regions.

Nope duplicating licenses, lost 2 slims this way.
The accounts and content is still useable for me (obviously just on one console), think MS did a bit of a mix really banned consoles, accounts sometimes both.

I downloaded them all too
 
What do you mean by 'duplicating licenses '?
 
That's interesting to know, I genuinely didn't think you'd lose access to content if the ban is temporary.
How long are you banned for? I got hit by that one a couple of times on the 360 despite me not actually playing online. I didn't have any digital content to worry about back then though.
It's a 2 week ban, and nothing that's paid for loads at all. It's a bit pathetic.
 
But aren't any games tied to not only the Gamertag, but also the console, hence other users on that console can play the same games. Therefore, if your tag was banned, you could I assume in theory just create another and still play all the games on the same console.

I have 4 tags on mine for me, the wife and our kids, and they can access everything.

The problem would come if you ever changed the console I guess.
The reason they can play the games is because you have set it has your home console, so anyone on that console can play the games. Or b your account is signed in and you can only sign in one console at a time. Likewise you can only set one console as your home console.
 
What's this duplication thing that people were getting banned for on Xbox 360?

I gave my old Xbox 360 to my brother and have that set as Home, so he has access to all my previously downloaded games on that machine. And I also have a 360 Slim for myself where I access my digital games by signing into Xbox Live. That's fine isn't it? Were the bans for something more than that? I don't know of any other way to share the games more than that, nor do I care to use such options and risk a ban.
 
hmm this is a bit concerning, i would love to see the legality around denying me access to £400 worth of games i have purchased, irrespective if they can prove if i have breeched any TOS
 
Nope duplicating licenses, lost 2 slims this way.
The accounts and content is still useable for me (obviously just on one console), think MS did a bit of a mix really banned consoles, accounts sometimes both.

I downloaded them all too

I remember reading your posts at the time.
I seriously shit a brick every time I turned my Xbox360 on for about a month.
Even more so if I got D/C for any reason. Even if it was for an update.

What do you mean by 'duplicating licenses '?

Basically, copying the games onto multiple consoles for use with other gamer tags which hadn't originally downloaded said games.
 
This is an interesting topic and highlights a potential flaw in the way licences are held in my opinion.

For PC's, tablets and phones, the licence is actually tied to the Microsoft account to which the associated gamertag belongs. In the case of Xbox, the licences are tied to the gamertag specifically.

If your gamertag was banned for any reason you would then in essence lose access to £1000's of digital games and content. I would really question whether MS actually could do that?

If I had the disc version of any game I could simply start a new gamertag and pop the disc back in the machine... simple... but digital content wouldn't work (without having old tag present etc obviously)

I actually believe that the licences should be able to be transferred from your gamertag to your MS account so that you could simply swap the association to a new gamertag and then play all your games again.

It could be a can of worms this!

I'm not condoning breaking any T.O.S by the way... just the potential ramifications of even slight rule breaking that people may not have considered.

Changing MS accounts & gamertags is a big enough clusterf*** as it is!
 
I think the answer to that is that slight rule breaking wouldn't result in the revocation of all your licenses and a complete ban, unless someone has an example where this is the case?

No I think we're talking major rule breaches, and I'm not sure I can garner sympathy in those situations.
 
I think the answer to that is that slight rule breaking wouldn't result in the revocation of all your licenses and a complete ban, unless someone has an example where this is the case?

No I think we're talking major rule breaches, and I'm not sure I can garner sympathy in those situations.

This doesn't sound like that though:
I'm currently temp banned for abusive messages apparently (sigh), and I don't have access to any of my content at all - everything is trial/demo if it's downloaded, no DLC loading, etc.

This could be dealt out unjustly potentially?
 

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