Copyright Law Just Got Better for Video Game History (vice.com) 46
In a series of rulings, the Library of Congress has carved out a number of exemptions that will help the movement to archive and preserve video games. From a report: In an 85-page ruling [PDF] that covered everything from electronic aircraft controls to farm equipment diagnostic software, the Librarian of Congress carved out fair use exemptions to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) for video games and software in general. These exemptions will make it easier for archivists to save historic video games and for museums to share that cultural history with the public. "The Acting Register found that the record supported granting an expansion in the relatively discrete circumstances where a preservation institution legally possesses a copy of a video game's server code and the game's local code," the Librarian of Congress said. "In such circumstances, the preservation activities described by proponents are likely to be fair uses."
These rules are definitely good news for single-player games. "The big change for single-player games happened during the last DMCA review process in 2015, when the Copyright Office decided that museums and archives could break the online authentication for single-player titles that were just phoning home to a server for copy protection reasons," Phil Salvador -- a Washington, DC-area librarian and archivist who runs The Obscuritory, a site that focuses on discussing and preserving obscure, old game -- told Motherboard. That 2015 ruling was due to expire this year, but thanks to pressure from activists it was renewed today instead.
These rules are definitely good news for single-player games. "The big change for single-player games happened during the last DMCA review process in 2015, when the Copyright Office decided that museums and archives could break the online authentication for single-player titles that were just phoning home to a server for copy protection reasons," Phil Salvador -- a Washington, DC-area librarian and archivist who runs The Obscuritory, a site that focuses on discussing and preserving obscure, old game -- told Motherboard. That 2015 ruling was due to expire this year, but thanks to pressure from activists it was renewed today instead.
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We've voted B-Western actors into the White House so reality TV doesn't surprise me.
I can remember when that happened. The rest of the world laughed at you behind our hands, but we thought "Well, he's an idiot, and corrupt, but they can't do worse, can they"?
The next couple of guys were pretty much standard US presidents, so the world could more or less do business with them.
Then of course you elected the idiot son of a former president, and we thought "Holy Shit!. This guy's a moron, and America has gone into the hereditary monarchy game"! but we didn't actually laugh into his face o
So, what is a museum? (Score:5, Insightful)
Legally Possess (Score:5, Interesting)
This is total irrelevant... (Score:5, Insightful)
... since it now doesn't matter since most developer and Microsoft and tech industry in general are pushing towards locked down computing. We're seeing the final push with windows 10+. They have already lawyered it and planted bombs in it to death anyway, there's no way publishers are going to go back to giving gamers full control of the software. We've seen the big final push from Ubisoft with the latest assasins creed and Microsoft has a huge streaming project they are working on, while releasing seriously hostile coded UWP games. This is a far cry from the 90's where we had the raw files because there was no internet they could use to steal pieces of files and game code to prevent gamers from owning nad controlling their software.
The last 20 years have been a real revolution for developers and publishers to get rid of game ownership by being able to not give the complete game to gamers because their customers can't reach them. The attack on game ownership began with ultima series back in the 90's as all PC rpg's in development were relabelled mmo's and moved over to server locked pieces of software, undermining control and the privacy of gamers as the gullible masses ate it up because they are clueless. The rise of steam, mmo's and f2p games are proof we live in an idiocracy.
Then today we have overwatch who's entire content is already on your machine but has a lootbox interface for you to gamble to 'set a flag to view the file contents' if you can't wait because they know the average gamer is a fucking computer illiterate moron.
Valve saw it coming (Score:1)
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> The attack on game ownership began with ultima series back in the 90's as all PC rpg's in development were relabelled mmo's and moved over to server locked pieces of software
While I agree with 90% of what you wrote you are omitting a key critical bit of information:
Ultima 1 - 9 were all single player.
Ultima Online was the first Ultima to offer a multiplayer experience in 1999 using Client-Server networking. While Origin could have offered a 4 - 16 player RPG they wanted to support 1,000's of players o
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The attack on game ownership began with ultima series back in the 90's as all PC rpg's in development were relabelled mmo's and moved over to server locked pieces of software
While I agree with 90% of what you wrote you are omitting a key critical bit of information:
Your "critical bit of information" IS the propaganda, they took the "single player" PC RPG, and rebranded it mmo, also note that Baldurs gate had multiplayer and single player inside the same RPG, don't tell me "it's different", the whole point of corporate PR is to manipulate you for profits. That was the whole point of the MMO scam that stupid people like you fell for. That's why PC RPG's in development suddenly were rebadged "mmo's", it was the biggest scam in all of gaming and gamers lapped it up bec
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> they took the "single player" PC RPG, and rebranded it mmo
1. Who is "they" ???
2. MMORPG != all RPGs!
3. You are STILL conveniently ignoring the facts:
* Grim Dawn
* Torchlight 1
* Torchlight 2
* Titan Quest
ALL of these can be played "offline". They are not MMORPGs, they are RPGs.
EVEN on PS4 I can play:
* Horizon Zero Dawn
Your rant against MMORPGs is ASSUMING everyone has fallen for the F2P we-own-the-server bullshit. Stop ignoring the genre just because the majority of games have gone for the SaS (Software-a
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Until today, I've never heard of of any claim that Baldur's Gate was an mmo, or game as a service, or similar. You'd have to present some evidence of this.
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"Stop liking things i don't like!" is how your comment reads basically.
There are tons of MMO's, and there's also tons of single player RPG's. They are not necessarily the same genre, at all.
Take a game like everquest 1, the entire premise for that game, and what made it unique was the social interaction. Even the pace of the game was designed to reward being social. For example in terms of setting up 'camps' waiting for monsters to respawn; or how interdependent the classes were -- soloing was nigh impos
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"Stop liking things i don't like!" is how your comment reads basically.
Your comment reads "I'm a moron that bent over for corporations, and now games have literally been stolen and taken hostage, I'll get to pay more money for less game. I'm so savvy, l get to have lootboxes that only give me A CHANCE to reveal SKINS, that are ALREADY ON MY COMPUTER, and that I ALREADY PAID FOR, in a FULL PRICED GAME. Also because I'm such a fucking moron I'll grind out the skins even though they are ALREADY IN THE GAME I PAID FULL PRICE FOR.
Continue to think I'm "just an old man" crying "get
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The reading comprehension is strong in this one. Never let anything stand in the way of a good rant though. Well.. just a rant.
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It's really the war between PC users, pirates and developers that has lead things to where they are now.
No it's because the internet allowed companies to steal PC game software, before the internet existed they couldn't literally steal the game or keep part of the software hostage on their computers, they had to give you the entire thing you paid for. The internet radically undermined customer power and gave it all to companies so they could just keep the fucking software. So no it's total theft.
I suggest you read what lawrence lessig has written about the corporate agenda of the copyright mafia.
http://www. [lessig.org]
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Time limit isn't the problem it is the fact that Copyrights are designed for printed material vs digital ones.
Back in the 1700's if I were to copy a book. It would take me (adjusted for inflation) at least $10,000 in labor and specialized equipment. And I would need to copy and sell thousands of books in order for me to break even. So copyright violators were doing serious business and were quite intentional on what they did. So the fines and punishments were just to the level of preventative action neede
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Time limit is the problem, and it's gone the wrong way...
The original copyright terms where what, 14 years plus 14 year extension? This made sense in the original context of printed media in the 1700s, where it could take years to print copies and distribute them world wide. Now you can distribute a work worldwide in seconds, so the terms should be shorter - however they've been made massively longer.
Now anything that's released today will be long forgotten by the time copyright expires, as anyone who was a
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Yes. Note, by the by, that the extension was only possible if the AUTHOR was alive to extend it. Not the owner of the Copyright, but the author of the copyrighted work.
It expires in three years (Score:1)
It'll be pretty sweet to have a video game archive for those three years though.
I propose a sane solution 25 year copyright (Score:2, Funny)
Since technology changes so fast I would propose a common sense solution:
This would give commercial entities more then enough time to make money from their product.
This would give consumers the legal protection to archive ancient games.
It is BULLSHIT that 8-bit games & productive software from 1980's for the Apple, C64, Atari, etc. are STILL copyrighted. NO ONE is using them EXCEPT for collectors and us o
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The copyright is often maintained for the purposes of protecting the franchise. Ie, they may want to create a remake, reboot, or sequel someday. Remember, Wasteland got a sequel relatively recently. I also remember people once claiming that Fallout was abandonware but that franchise is alive and well today.
Tell me we can play No One Lives Forever again... (Score:1)
It's stuck in limbo...but, best FPS ever.
Wiil that work for say OS like windows XP? needed (Score:2)
Wiil that work for say OS like windows XP? needed to run the game?
The os in a embedded arcade game?
Can you fake dialup or is that an FCC issue? (Score:2)
Can you fake dialup or is that an FCC issue?
Say to get old golden tee online?