Video Game Sold With Locked Content

[DemonDragon]

I bought a new game recently. It is called Dragon's Dogma. I recently found out that there is content on my disc, that is locked. I have checked google and came up with nothing but arguments and theories, no actual definitive answer. So, I thought I would ask here.

Is it legal to sell a product and keep part of it locked, so that they can charge me later to unlock the content.

Don't I own the disc its on? Don't I own the content on the disc? Its not downloaded content, its already on the disc, its just locked. Buying the 'key' for X amount of $ unlocks it, but, is it legal for a company to do this?

The best analogy I heard was. Its like buying land and a house. You go check out the land, and home, its all good, so, you buy it. Only to find out later the house is locked. You call the person you bought it from, and they say the key was not included in the purchase, and you have to buy the key to the house seperately. Does that makes sense?

I did find something along the lines of this - Copyright laws. The copyright holder has the right to determine what content you get access to. If you try to circumvent the protections on that content, you're committing a felony under 17 USC 1201(a)(1)(A).

I'm not sure if that covers this, or if its under intellectual property, or what. So, I thought I'd come to the place that is far, far more knowledgable then myself, and hope you guys can find an answer, regardless of my like of said answer.

[Dogmatique]

Yeap, that's perfectly legal (and not uncommon actually).

[DemonDragon]

So, its illegal for me to access content on the piece of plastic I bought from the store, without their permission? >.> That kind of sucks.

[Dogmatique]

Example:

You know when you buy Bejeweled? (for those of us who actually bought the darned game on disk). There are several other game demos/features on the disk. You can play the demos, sure - but after a certain amount of time or number of sessions, you can no longer access those features without shelling out your hard-earned cash.

It's basically the same principle, minus the free trial.

[DemonDragon]

Alright, thank you, I don't like it, but, I do understand. >.> It shouldn't be legal to sell me content on a disc that I can't access. But anyway, thank you for your response, especially so quickly!

[Dogmatique]

You're welcome

Walk away with your head held high knowing you were not one of the idiots (unlike me) who shelled out money to buy Bejeweled

[LawResearcherMissy]

Hey, I resemble that remark! (I bought it for me, and for my MIL.)

[Dogmatique]

(Shhhhhhh...I've bought at least three different versions of the darned game....and don't even get me started on Chuzzles!)