Hi there, We removed Dark and Darker from sale on the Epic Games Store on March 5 in consideration of a court decision in Korea between Nexon and the game's publisher, IRONMACE. On November 1, 2025, we will be removing Dark and Darker from your library, at which point it will no longer be playable via the Epic Games Store.
Effective immediately, players can no longer purchase Redstone Shards or the Legendary Status upgrades via the Epic Games Store. Players can continue to use the Redstone Shards that they have previously purchased until November 1, 2025.
We will issue a refund to all players who have purchased the Legendary Status upgrade. Refunds will be issued to the player’s original payment method, and where that’s not possible, players will receive a refund to their Epic account balance. We are unable to provide refunds on Redstone Shards.
If you have not received a refund by July 1, please contact player support.
Thank you,
The Epic Games Store team
I think the confusion comes about from the different meanings of the world "own". When you buy a book it comes with an implied personal use license to the contents of the book. I think most people are aware that you aren't allowed to make copies of the book and sell those copies. You do "own" the physical copy though. You can do whatever you want with it besides copy it and sell the copies. Technically you aren't allowed to even make a physical copy for personal backup purposes, but that does typically fall under fair use. So while it's still breaking copyright rules, you aren't likely to be prosecuted for it.
The same is true with software unless some other license is used (ex GPL) except, with software you are allowed to make 1 copy for the purpose of archiving the software in case it is damaged or lost. You must destroy or transfer your backup copy if you ever decide to sell, transfer or give away your original valid copy. It is not legal to sell a backup copy of software unless you are selling it along with the original.
The DMCA circumvented this by making it illegal to break encryption in order to make a backup. So while you technically still have the right to make the copy, breaking encryption in order to do so is illegal.
All that being said, if you buy a DRM free copy of a game, in theory you 'own' it in the same way you would own any other piece of non-encrypted software. You could legally make a backup and even sell the game to someone else as long as you deleted your copy and any backups at the same time.
That's as close to 'owning' a piece of copyrighted material as you are ever going to get. So while you don't 'own' the IP, you do 'own' your copy along with the implied license. That is again assuming the game doesn't come with a license that explicitly states you aren't allowed to copy or sell it.
Not true at all. Pretty much all of us own loads of copyrighted material, as in actually own. For example: every single photo you take is your intellectual property.
Clearly I was referring to copyrighted material you don't own the copyright to, but sure.