Stop Killing Games
EU/UK consumer initiative against disabling purchased games, sparked by The Crew shutdown. If you're an EU or UK citizen, their actions apply to you directly.
Take action
The fastest path to digital ownership protections in the US runs through state legislatures. California's AB 2426 proved a state can act; every other state can copy and improve it.
1. Write your state legislators
Find your representatives through your state legislature's website (search “find my legislator” plus your state), then adapt the template below. Check your state's page first — if a bill is already moving, reference it by number.
Letter template
Dear [Senator/Representative LAST NAME],
I'm a constituent in [CITY/DISTRICT], and I'm writing about a consumer
protection gap: digital purchases that can be revoked without refund.
When I "buy" a game, movie, or album from a digital storefront, I receive
a license the seller can terminate — and this happens regularly. In 2024,
a major publisher shut down a game's servers and removed purchased copies
from customers' libraries entirely; in 2023, a major platform announced it
would delete purchased TV seasons from customers' video libraries.
KeepWhatYouBuy.org documents these cases with sources.
California addressed the transparency half of this in 2024 with AB 2426,
which bars sellers from advertising digital goods with "buy" or "purchase"
language unless they disclose that the sale is a revocable license.
[STATE] has no equivalent protection.
I ask you to consider introducing legislation that (1) adopts AB 2426-style
truth-in-advertising disclosure, and (2) goes further by requiring a refund
or an offline copy when a paid digital good is revoked.
I'd be glad to share the supporting research. Thank you for your time.
[NAME]
[ADDRESS — showing you are a constituent]2. Legislator evidence packets
For states with active bills, we assemble downloadable evidence packets: the state's protection gaps, model bill language based on CA AB 2426, and sourced incident evidence from the database. Packets are generated from the database and human-reviewed before release — the first packets will appear here as state reviews complete.
3. Organizations working on this
PIRG (Public Interest Research Groups)
State-level consumer advocacy network with an active right-to-repair and digital-consumer-protection practice.
Video Game History Foundation
Nonprofit dedicated to preserving video game history — research on how store closures make games permanently unavailable.
Electronic Frontier Foundation
Long-running work on DRM and digital ownership, including the 2008 MSN Music DRM shutdown documented in our database.
4. Stay informed
The monthly newsletter digests new incidents and legislative movement — the practical signal for when your state needs constituent pressure.