Regarding Legalities: GameStop, Deus Ex, and OnLive

So unless you've been under a rather large rock for the past few days you'll notice in the gaming world a bit of a kerfuffle right now: SquareEnix released the retail version of Deux Ex: Human Revolution with a $50 coupon for OnLive, and digital games distribution network. GameStop.Was.Pissed. They took the time to open each box and remove the coupon, and are now fully removing the retail version until further notice.

Since I'm stuck daydreaming at work (Tomorrow is the last day :O ) I thought I would chime in on this. I've read enough up on it to form some (not all) solid opinions on what is going on:


1) Did GameStop do something illegal? Eh, no. The box doesn't mention the OnLive coupon, so there's no false advertising. You can install and play the game without the coupon, so ditto on this note.
2) Did GameStop or SquareEnix breach a contract: Doesn't look like it, but unless we have access to the document we'll never know. From what it looks like (in the SE press release) they didn't tell them about this nor were they obligated to do so.
3) Did GameStop or SquareEnix do anything unethical? Whoa boy... I put that in italics for a reason because we're getting into opinion territory. For my money, I will side that GS needs a healthy cock-punching. Not for taking the coupon out, but selling an open box as new. There is an unwritten (and thus, non-legally binding) contract that when you buy something "new" in a store that means "new and unaltered". I mean food, cooked, would be one thing. However if I went to store for a sack of potatoes and got home to find out I had been given mashed I would raise hell. Following this analogy I would have gotten home and upon checking the internet found out I should have gotten a coupon for butter.
4) Why did GameStop make this decision? GS is in the process of getting into the digital distribution market. Right now Steam, OnLive, and Impulse are the major players. So in this case they were taking out a (future) potential rival.
5) Did GameStop handle the situation correctly? Hindsight is 20/20 in this case. No, not just no but fuck no. The blow back received should be an indication of this. They're now doing what they should have done in the first place: They've taken the stock off the shelves until they can work it out.