EA: Inactive Origin accounts won't be deleted

That mysterious part of Origin's terms of service saying EA could delete accounts left idle for two years? Nothing to worry about, EA says. No accounts with games will be deleted, only those left maliciously idle.

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The Internet was all in arms yesterday after eagle-eyes spotted a line in Origin's terms of service stating that EA could delete accounts after two years of inactivity: "If you have not used your Entitlements or Account for twenty four (24) months or more and your Account has associated Entitlements, your Entitlements will expire and your Account may be cancelled for non-use."

Turns out, there's nothing to worry about, and nobody risks losing their games.

The cancellation clause exists only to protect against nebulous "misuse" of the digital platform, EA senior director of corporate communications John Reseburg explained in a statement provided to Rock, Paper, Shotgun:

The Origin terms of service are designed to protect against misuse of the Origin system. No Origin user who has paid entitlements and/or downloaded games will have their account cancelled or games expired due to extended non-use. The term regarding account cancellation for non-use is designed to guard against creation of non-active accounts for inappropriate reasons.

The Internet, you may now speculate on how exactly one might use inactive accounts for malicious purposes. A famous "no prize" to the most novel idea.

From The Chatty
  • reply
    August 4, 2011 7:45 AM

    Alice O'Connor posted a new article, EA: Inactive Origin accounts won't be deleted.

    That mysterious part of Origin's terms of service saying EA could delete accounts left idle for two years? Nothing to worry about, EA says. No accounts with games will be deleted, only those left maliciously idle.

    • reply
      August 4, 2011 7:46 AM

      Maliciously idle? That sounds so sinister.

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        August 4, 2011 7:48 AM

        How do you do nothing, malciously ?

        EA you are so silly

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          August 4, 2011 7:53 AM

          EA isn't silly (in this case), it's the write up. EA is basically saying if someone was to create a whole bunch of accounts with no intent to use them, presumably for some failed weird botting attempt, those accounts would be deleted. Which basically clears up the loophole for people who create account for botting purposes but never actually succeed because if you succeed then I assume EA has an abuse of the system reason for deleting your account.

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            August 4, 2011 8:58 AM

            No, the language in the original TOS deserved the criticism. They could have narrowed the language to specifically cover malicious use, but they did not.

            What they did was specifically state that being inactive was grounds for deletion. The reaction was fair, though I'm of course glad to see that's not apparently what they meant.

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          August 4, 2011 7:53 AM

          My guess is to combat bot accounts with no games attached to them. But that still doesn't change the wording in their contract.

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            August 4, 2011 8:07 AM

            Okay. You and Jonathan make sense.

            Idle maliciously. I love it.

      • reply
        August 4, 2011 7:55 AM

        it means doing nothing, and doing it HARD.

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        August 4, 2011 12:55 PM

        Only accounts that have bombs hidden in their trunk will be deactivated

      • reply
        August 4, 2011 1:47 PM

        Accounts wearing turbans?

    • reply
      August 4, 2011 7:51 AM

      Maliciously idle? WTF does that even mean? Empty accounts? If you're going to clear out empty accounts, why mention entitlements? If you're not going to clear out accounts with games, why mention accounts with games?

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        August 4, 2011 7:54 AM

        because you could get free entitlements and they didn't mention games in the original text.

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      August 4, 2011 7:53 AM

      Make a bunch of user accounts with inappropriate names and have them all spam someone with friend invites to harass them, then never log into them again?

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        August 4, 2011 7:55 AM

        Or add said inappropriate accounts to your friends list so that when people view your profile they see your "friends" and are subjected to inappropriateness.

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        August 4, 2011 8:06 AM

        Stop being logical. It's in on the shack to hate on Origin and EA for absolutely everything, legitimate or not.

        P.S. I heard that the CEO of EA stoned someone to death and I also heard that Origin is the reason for the poor economy. Fucking EA.

    • reply
      August 4, 2011 8:08 AM

      Seriously people. Steam has the same shit in its ToS.

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        August 4, 2011 8:17 AM

        someone mentioned this the other day and no one replied to them either. They all just keep flipping out over it and sucking on valve

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          August 4, 2011 8:20 AM

          There was at least 2 threads I saw about EA yesterday. One of them even contained the cited info off the steam tos.

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            August 4, 2011 8:48 AM

            That was me who posted it.

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            August 4, 2011 8:52 AM

            Xav de Matos also said that it is a different situation

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              August 4, 2011 8:56 AM

              Oh, I didn't read a whole lot of it as it was just a bunch of nerds raging

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          August 4, 2011 8:50 AM

          Valve has earned our trust. EA has earned our mistrust.

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            August 4, 2011 9:00 AM

            ^^^^^

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            August 4, 2011 9:15 AM

            I'm not trying to defend EA as a whole but origin seems alright to me right now. It registered my copy of swtor when I entered it into swtor.com so origin hasn't wronged me yet. I contacted support a few times regarding a different version I pre-ordered and eventually canceled and I got my money back no problem.

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            August 4, 2011 1:54 PM

            Yep.

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          August 4, 2011 12:54 PM

          Actually, a bunch of us have replied that this is an entirely differently worded clause. The Origin Terms of Service already contain the clause that they can delete your account for whatever reason at whatever time, just like every competitor, so why would they need this second one suggesting that idle accounts will be deleted wholesale?

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          August 4, 2011 12:57 PM

          i love front page posters and their blind dumbness to not actually read threads. people did respond to those ToS claims. No suckling.

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          August 4, 2011 1:20 PM

          [deleted]

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        August 4, 2011 1:48 PM

        To be fair, people used to absolutely rage about Steam's ToS when it first came out. I just hope EA can provide some decent competition, but they probably can't primarily being a publisher of their own goods.

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        August 4, 2011 2:26 PM

        FUCK EA. It's not the same. EA is not Valve.

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      August 4, 2011 8:10 AM

      maliciously idle aka logging out with the thanks.txt button checked

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      August 4, 2011 1:54 PM

      EA TOS: "Nothing to worry about".

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