I have a question about gifting/trading individual Humble Bundle games.

I recently bought a Humble Bundle, the games came with DRM-free downloads and Steam keys. I have no intention of ever using the Steam keys.

So now, my dilemma is this: is it OK to gift/trade the Steam keys?

When I buy a Humble Bundle which comes with DRM-free and Steam versions, am I just buying different ways to access the same game, or am I buying two different copies of the game (1x DRM-free, 1x Steam)?

My gut is telling me that if I am going to download the DRM-free version, then I should NOT gift/trade the associated Steam key. I should view it as HB giving me various ways of accessing the SINGLE game.

However, if it’s a game in which I have absolutely no interest and will never download, then is it OK to gift/trade the Steam key? The problem here is that the DRM-free version is still sitting in my account (even if I will never download it), so if I did this then now there are two people with copies of this single game out there (1x DRM-free, 1x Steam).

I should note that previously I bought a different Humble Bundle which was *only* Steam keys, in that case I had no reservations about gifting away the keys for games in which I had no interest, because in that case there was only one copy of each game.

Also, I did see that it says on the HB Steam key page: “All purchases are for your personal use only.” But at the same time it has the option for “Give this link to your friend!” for each game… so then I assume gifting the game to someone counts as personal use? Otherwise there is a contradiction here.

Anyway, I’d appreciate any input or opinions anyone has to share :).

Spliting bundles is wrong (at least in case of Humble, which clearly states so in their Terms of Service).
Spliting single games into DRM-free and Steam key seems even worse from this point of view.

I thought they changed that? Or am I misremembering?

I always get surprised by how much people overthink things.

According to the TOS, you shouldn't gift/trade the keys at all. But iof you want to, there's nothing stopping you. So just do what you feel is right, and that's that.

One solution would be for HIB to tie the DRM-free downloads to the Steam copy. If you redeem the Steam copy, you get access to the DRM-free download. If you gift the Steam copy, then the DRM-free download is in that Humble gift URL and "belongs" to the person who receives the gift.

As someone else mentioned, they changed that.

Feel free to gift your steam key. If you retain your DRM-free key, just don't use it.

I wouldn't get bent out of shape if one day you really wanted to use one of the old ones, though. The DRM-free version is a penny at its cheapest point. If you really want to avoid the whole moral dilemma, just donate 1 cent more.

The problem is, people rarely read TOS. But I've just corrected my mistake ;)

I think they should implement the gifting somewhat differently. When I saw a gift button next to Steam keys I assumed that I'm allowed to gift/trade (a few hours ago I even posted my Steam games in classified thread). But now I've just read that they implemented it for people who already own some games from the bundle (from other sources that is) and want to gift it. But why it allows to transfer only Steam version is beyond me.

The good part is, I corrected my mistake before any trade/gifting so no harm done. I should have read this bloody TOS earlier but who has a time for this ;P Yes, but as far as I can understand this article: http://blog.humblebundle.com/post/66129939468/you-spoke-we-listened
you can gift it if you got a particular game from other distributor. Then you can gift a Steam link to somebody else. If you don't have it and gift it anyway you are still violating their ToS even if you are not using a DRM-free version.

I might, however, be completely wrong because I'm not good at those rules and legislations ;) If so - please correct me

I think we need amok to clear the issue :)

Yeah, actually it's pretty clear. At the bottom of the "Steam keys" tab you can see "All purchases are for your personal use only". Shame on me that I haven't noticed it before but I really don't care about Steam at all so I never bothered to look there. Today I've just clicked on this tab and saw gifting buttons so I thought about sharing them here. Pity that they didn't mention that that gifting is allowed only if you own a game from elsewhere. But oh well, it's my fault that I haven't read what I should have. But as I said - no harm done ;)

If they didn't want you to gift your steam codes, they would disable it and the option to buy bundles as gifts.
Seems to me like they allow it, so give your gifts out.

I share my bubble gum with my friends, even if the packaging says "for personal use only" in an out of the way place on the inside of the packaging.

On this page: http://support.humblebundle.com/customer/portal/articles/1356336-gifting-steam-keys

it says that you will still retain ownership of the DRM-free copy even after you gift a steam copy.

And I see nothing in the terms that would prevent you from gifting and retaining the DRM-free copy: http://www.humblebundle.com/terms

For my ethics, it's perfectly acceptable to gift/trade the game codes, as long as you have no intention of using or giving out the DRM-free copy.

Since they added gifting I see no problem giving away games you already have or don't want to other people. Even before then I gave away Steam keys I was sure I wouldn't use. Though any games that came with DRM free versions also I never gave the key away unless I already had the game from before as I felt that would be wrong.

Don't they have a little gift icon next to each of their Steam keys allowing you to gift them individually? That to me says it's acceptable to do so.

This. I don't know if they changed it back, but my newer Humble Bundles always have an option to gift the game you already own.

That function actually makes it possible to gift someone a "slice" of the bundle, meaning that they get both the Steam/Desura/whatever key AND the DRM copy. So I give the game away. Not just the key.

I like that option. I am guilty of giving away Humble Bundle (or other bundle) keys, but I only give keys of games away that I'm not gonna play. I think other people never thought twice about it and treated it as two different copies of the game. Since nothing is stopping you, it's up to you if you think it's wrong or right... But like I said, I thought they sticked with the bundle slice concept.