Stop defending them. Nobody should be defending Sony either nor should people be defending Steam for breaking the law in the EU and not allowing us to resell our games. It's about customer rights.
I wasn't defending them. I was simply stating that way they are doing is becoming the industry norm, and that they shouldn't be singled out for doing exactly what everyone else is doing. I'm not saying I agree with MS for doing it. At the same time, I'm not going to act all hot and bothered as if there isn't already a precedent for it.
You and I are actually on the same side in this. Personally I believe that the DMCA needs to get abolished and replaced with a new version that specifically deals with consumer rights in the digital marketplace. Right now the only rights we have are the ones developers choose to give us and the elaborate EULAs only support it. We need straight forward legal language that takes all the ambiguity out.
Stuff like,
1. All components available to the user at the time of sale must be maintained and fully supported for not less than five years from when the last license is sold.
I.e. If I buy a game in March 2014 and the last copy allowed to be sold by the developer is in November of 2016, then it should be etched in stone that I can access the game and play it with all capabilities including multiplayer up to and including November 2021 at minimum. This way gamers can at least have the peace of mind knowing that they have a reasonable amount of time to enjoy a product after purchase, even if they buy it later in the product life.
2. Eula's are legally dismissed and the developer can't summarily remove player rights piecemeal.
I.e. Digital consumer's rights should be implicity based on the intent of the product. If multiplayer is a advertised feature, then multiplayer can never be dismissed by the developer/provider for economic reasons. If a player violates established decency rules, then it's the developer/providers option to restrict them servers with like minded players but in no circumstance can game access to retracted. Also, this applies to hardware where software is integral, such as an OS. If you buy a console with X capabilities, then the maker does not have the power to make any software change that restricts capabilities available at the time of sale. This would effectively keep companies like MS and Sony from removing features just because it potentially affects their bottom line, such as Sony removing "Other OS" because some people used it to bypass DRM.
Those are just ideas but you get the idea.