Sony’s Updated Terms Of Service Raises Concerns On Game ‘Licensing” and PSN Monitoring

Eyebrows were raised when Sony updated their Terms of Service on the UK site for their software. It has come to light that Sony licenses the software to its users, and will be doing monitoring and recording of PSN activity, such as text and voice messages.

Sony sent an immediate clarification that they have made no changes to their policies regarding the resale of used games, and astute observers have also noted that these terms were in place since at least the Playstation. As of right now, these software terms are applied for all past and current software for any of the Playstation consoles, including the portables.

Regarding your PSN activity, Sony’s terms allow them to also remove any user generated media or activity without notice to Sony users. However, they have no intention of recording all PSN activity and are making no commitment to do so. This is to allow them to comply with existing laws and regulations.

Thus far, reporting does not seem to have sought out any legal opinions regarding these terms, but regarding the licensing of software, it plainly means Sony has always held onto the right to own their software all along, years, even a decade before the Xbox One DRM mess. Although they have never leveraged it and indicate no intent to, at any time Sony could decide to take away right of ownership from players, placing limitations towards their ability to borrow or resell these games.

Similarly, the terms regarding PSN monitoring and recording makes their network as open to surveillance as Skype, Google, and other major tech services have famously been revealed to be. While Sony cites law compliance, and of course reveals it here as part of full disclosure, Playstation users need to be aware of this and keep it in mind.

 As lawyer David Graham, known to the FGC as Ultradavid, points out, these are provisions that benefit Sony, and not necessarily the end users. Furthermore, they are well within their legal right to do so.

#PS4 terms are good lawyerin: reserve rights as base option, let client make exceptions where it wants. But as user, I want more rights! Heh

— David Philip Graham (@ultradavid) November 12, 2013

Still really bugs me that my hobby can be shut down so easily by copyright holders. They have the legal right! Buuut I sure wish they didn't

— David Philip Graham (@ultradavid) November 12, 2013

Just to be clear, these are not intended to dissuade you from purchasing any Sony products. However, it is wholly your responsibility to understand what you are getting yourself into, and our attempt to inform you here. In a similar vein, you can read our prior coverage of Nintendo’s updated Wii U policies here.