There's that one guy who is being held in contempt of the court (to be clear this is not the police asking for his password, but a judge in a court of law) because he won't give a password to decrypt a hard drive.
They believe it is highly likely that the drive contains sexually explicit material of children, which is why he's being held in prison until he gives up the password.
Yeah they had their chance. Audio streaming services have (mostly) managed to figure out licensing agreements so all music is on all platforms.
Video streaming services all created their own walled gardens with various levels of advertising. Paramount even offered an advertising free tier but would happily advertise their own shows before other shows (noticed specifically on Star Trek shows but I imagine other providers do it too).
In the end... Fuck them. I give up on trying to figure out streaming video with all its complications. Back to the seven seas to procure my own.
Yeah also early 40s. Hoped to retire in 3 - 4 years or so based on my finances but it's getting harder and harder to stick it out.
Yeah but it's fairly simple.
You can generate Steam keys using the Steam developer tools. This allows a game key to be purchased on any storefront that supports selling them, which can then be activated on Steam.
The main requirement? You can't price those steam keys on a 3rd party store cheaper than on Steam itself.
For that, it means if the 3rd party store takes a smaller cut than Steam itself would take, the developer makes a bit more profit through almost no additional effort. Steam is the system users use to download and update the game, and cloud save syncing, and community guides, forums, workshop, etc.
The developer is, afaik, more than welcome to also sell a UPlay key if they partner with Ubisoft at any price point they want (regardless of the Steam price) because Ubisoft is the taking on the burden of distribution, etc.
The only price requirement Valve imposes is on selling Steam keys on 3rd party storefronts. Not UPlay keys. Not Xbox keys. Not Epic Store keys.
Edit: and I read the article, while albeit short (can't access the linked Bloomberg article sadly), they claim exactly that, that the version on UPlay was significantly cheaper than the version on Steam for essentially the same game. Valve was arguing that Rainbow Six Siege needs to change their pricing on UPlay or they would be delisted.
Oh yeah I think it's terrible this guy is imprisoned for not giving up a password, for something they can't prove. Like they shouldn't be able to detain someone indefinitely for an unproven crime. At some point they have to release them or it's guilty until proven innocent.