You do not own the games you buy

"Myth" confirmed:  what you're buying is a revocable license to play the game.

Almost two years ago, IUN reported that a federal judge had ruled that using a particular third-party "bot" software in World of Warcraft was a violation of the game's End User License Agreement.  That meant - at the time - that the violators' licenses to use Blizzard's software were insta-revoked, and they were therefore committing copyright infringement by continuing to play the game.

Yesterday, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a decision upholding the lower court's determination that a software EULA can indeed designate purchasers as a licensees, and deny them any right of ownership.  The appellate court did, however, reject the theory that the specific EULA violation (i.e. using the bot) constituted copyright infringement.  It held instead that using the bot was a breach of contract, rather than an "unlawful reproduction or distribution" that would have triggered copyright protections.  

The distinction is important, because "[a] copyright owner who grants a nonexclusive, limited license ordinarily waives the right to sue licensees for copyright infringement, and it may sue only for breach of contract."  It's also important because the damages the defendants will have to pay on a breach of contract theory are much less than what they would have had to pay if they were found liable on a copyright claim.