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IDSA Forces Arcade Game Manual Archive Offline

Posted by timothy on from the legal-scrooge dept.

AtariKee writes "The IDSA and the DMCA has struck again, this time forcing the maintainer of Stormaster.com, a coin-operated video game manual and tech information archive, to shut down. Stormaster has been an invaluable resource for collectors of classic coin-operated video games for years, and this loss further demonstrates the idiocy that is the DMCA. I can understand ROM images to some extent, but 25 year old coin-op operator/tech manuals? The full text of the IDSA's letter can be read on Stormaster's site." Previous Slashdot posts about IDSA (Interactive Digital Software Association) show that this is typical of the organization.

25 of 215 comments (clear)

  1. read carefully by ummit · · Score: 3, Insightful
    ...forcing the maintainer of Stormaster.com to shut down... I can understand ROM images to some extent, but 25 year old coin-op operator/tech manuals?

    Well, I notice that the IDSA letter does not demand that those 25 year old manuals be taken down, or that the site be shut down -- the letter refers only to a list of 7 "game products" (which are presumably ROM images).

    1. Re:read carefully by tha_mink · · Score: 3, Interesting

      *you* should heed your own advice.

      Well, I notice that the IDSA letter does not demand that those 25 year old manuals be taken down, or that the site be shut down -- the letter refers only to a list of 7 "game products" (which are presumably ROM images).

      Sounds to me like you should have read the next paragraph.

      The unauthorized copies of such game product[s] appearing on, or made available through, such site are listed and/or identified on such Internet site by their titles, variations thereof or depictions of associated artwork (any such game titles, copies, listings and/or other depictions of, or references to, any contents of such game product, are hereinafter referred to as "Infringing Material").

      --
      You'll have that sometimes...
    2. Re:read carefully by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

      Or, maybe it *was* copyright infringement.

      *Gasp* Unpopular observation I just made on Slashdot, but let's remember something.

      This site was (AFAICT) distributing copyrighted material without the permission of the copyright owner.

      And that, BTW, is illegal.

      The DMCA doesn't apply here (unless I'm a loser who doesn't know what he's talking about). Unless IDSA wants to argue that opening the cover of a manual is circumvention of a copy-control device.

  2. Anybody notice this: by Guspaz · · Score: 5, Insightful

    At the bottom of the page/letter:

    "
    Note: The information transmitted in this Notice is intended only for the
    person or entity to which it is addressed and may contain confidential and/or
    privileged material. Any review, reproduction, retransmission, dissemination
    or other use of, or taking of any action in reliance upon, this information by
    persons or entities other than the intended recipient is prohibited. If you
    received this in error, please contact the sender and delete the material from
    all computers."

    Isn't posting it on the internet the same as retransmitting or disseminating?

    1. Re:Anybody notice this: by Dun+Malg · · Score: 4, Informative
      Isn't posting it on the internet the same as retransmitting or disseminating?

      No. The bit at the bottom applies to anyone who is NOT the intended recipient who might get the letter. If you drop some of the excess verbiage, it reads:

      "Any dissemination by persons other than the intended recipient is prohibited."

      --
      If a job's not worth doing, it's not worth doing right.
  3. looking at the letter... by parliboy · · Score: 3, Funny

    Wow, I didn't know Tron 2.0 was in the arcade!

    --
    "You're never ready, just less unprepared."
  4. For PC game manuals by jmaatta · · Score: 4, Informative

    The Underdogs has manuals of many old (but better than most of the newer ones) PC games available for downloading. You can also have the games for some of the manuals, but don't tell anyone.

  5. Re:The best part... by Dun+Malg · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Read it carefully:

    "Any reproduction... by persons or entities other than the intended recipient is prohibited."

    He's the "intended recipient", so he can do ANY of the actions listed. Get a clue. Learn to read.

    --
    If a job's not worth doing, it's not worth doing right.
  6. Is anyone surprised? by McAddress · · Score: 3, Interesting

    So far this law has been used to prosecute sewing pattern pirates. Now it is being used to go after videogame websites. If Orrin Hatch has his way, the RIAA will be able to destroy your computer. More and more it looks like Richard Stallman might not have been that far off.

    1. Re:Is anyone surprised? by gilesjuk · · Score: 4, Interesting

      It might have been fairer for the DMCA to have had a cutoff point, like minus 10 years from the introduction of the act.

      There are plenty of Commodore and Sinclair ROMs, manuals and diagrams on the net. They're available to keep such old gear working for future generations to see. What next, ban the distribution of classic car manuals and sue people for producing reproduction parts?

    2. Re:Is anyone surprised? by NewbieProgrammerMan · · Score: 4, Interesting

      A few years ago I read an article suggesting that a dark age of sorts could come about because we are storing so much information in electronic form only. IIRC, their premise was that information might not get rolled forward onto new media when its original storage medium becomes obsolete.

      Originally, I thought this was just a little farfetched, but I worry a little about trends I see. Some companies now seem to desire the ability to turn a profit on any innovation for all eternity by maintaining everlasting copyrights, patents and IP rights. Maybe this will be one of the driving forces that causes the loss of knowledge about old technology and "unimportant" information.

      I think the US will pay a big price in the long term by passing these "mediocrity protection" laws. I would not be surprised at all to see more and more smart people begin going to countries where they won't be blocked at every turn when they try to build on other people's work.

      --
      [b.belong('us') for b in bases if b.owner() == 'you']
  7. Motivation? by niom · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I fail to see the motivation in some of these cease and desist actions by large companies; Blizzard recent shutdown of Freecraft is another example. What's the point? Simply showing they can?

    --
    -- Repeat with me: "There is no right to profits".
  8. Hmmm... by Tyrdium · · Score: 4, Interesting
    IDSA has a good faith belief that the Internet site found at http://www.stormaster.com/ infringes the rights of one or more IDSA members by offering for download one or more unauthorized copies of one or more game products protected by copyright, including, but not limited to:

    It looks like what he's being accused of is having warez on his site, not manuals. Of course, if the manuals also included schematics for some reason (repairs?), then by having the schematics up on his site he would be allowing someone to reproduce the game. I'm not sure what was in the manuals, since I never got a chance to see them...

    1. Re:Hmmm... by macwhiz · · Score: 5, Informative

      Looking at the Wayback Machine archive for the stormaster.com site, it looks like it included ROM images. That'd probably be why the DMCA was invoked.

      I can understand why the game makers would want those ROMs taken down. People are still willing to pay for versions of the classic games -- look at the various "oldies" cartridges for modern game systems. Two of the games on the list I know to be available in stores: Frogger was recently remade as a 3D game, as was Dig Dug. Both include the "classic" game. (I saw Dig Dug at my local job-lot clearance store just the other day.)

      It's not a case of the code having no value. Clearly, you can still sell that code. So, having it available for anyone with MAME to use is stealing from the pockets of the current rights-holders.

      As much as I think DMCA is bad law and is abused, this is one case where it seems to be used as intended.

  9. Overseas by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Why not just give the site content to somebody living in a country where "freedom" still means something.

  10. Offtopic, but interesting- mods will be the judge by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I'd like to see some specific references to this. Clearly, sites like InternalMemos.com have no problem reproducing and disseminating internal correspondence within a private company. I wonder whether copyright law prohibits public postings of private emails. On one hand I'd say no, because we've all seen memos, cease and desist letters, and leaked emails posted tons of places. But what if an email should contain something like a poem? Wouldn't that be protected by copyright law? Wouldn't the letter in itself, as a unique form of expression, be protected? Is there a difference in copyright ownership between a letter sent by a lawyer vs. an internal memo at a privately owned company vs. a letter sent by me to grandma?

    Just curious.

  11. Re:Looks fake to me by ewhac · · Score: 4, Offtopic

    Note: The information transmitted in this Notice is intended only for the person or entity to which it is addressed and may contain confidential and/or privileged material. Any review, reproduction, retransmission, dissemination or other use of, or taking of any action in reliance upon, this information by persons or entities other than the intended recipient is prohibited. [ ... ]

    Prohibited by what?

    The recipient received this notice unsolicited. There was no prior agreement in place that the recipient would maintain the contents of the notice in confidence. Therefore, barring national security interests, I can't see any reason why the recipient shouldn't be free to do anything they want with the notice, including expose the sender to public ridicule and derision.

    It's meaningless boilerplate.

    Schwab

    --
    Editor, A1-AAA AmeriCaptions
  12. Tech Manuals, good faith and goodwill by HardcoreGamer · · Score: 3, Interesting

    If the site originally hosted tech manuals for the games and not the actual game ROMs themselves, it doesn't appear that the site would have to be taken down. The letter appears to refer only to the software, not information about the software.

    Then again, this could be the operative phrase:

    any such game titles, copies, listings and/or other depictions of, or references to, any contents of such game product, are hereinafter referred to as "Infringing Material"

    If the IDSA was smart they would sponsor the site instead of trying to shut it down. There are a couple of concepts known as good faith and goodwill. It would behoove them to start practising both.

  13. Not really a problem. by OwnerOfWhinyCat · · Score: 4, Informative

    If you read closely the prohibitions apply to persons or entities other than the intended recipient. I believe the idea here is that the intended recipient is obligated to be truthful (at lawyer-point), but if his ISP sees the letter going by in the "suspicious mail" folder and does a routine SPAM reveiw on it, the ISP cannot then publish what he found.

    In fact to state that the intended recipient is not allowed to have the letter "reviewed" by a lawyer would be contrary to their purpose of using expensive lawyers to handle what should be done by decent thinking people.

    As a previous poster noted though, the letter does not include specific references to the manuals for those games, and it wasn't and endless list of games.

    If I had to take a wild stab at it I'd wager the site-owner is just frustrated by running a non-profit site that isn't doing any actual damage to anyones business and getting kicked in the teeth for it by lawyers anxious to justify their billable hours.

    "Look! We stopped another person from freely sharing information that will never be of use to anyone! That'll be $1200 dollars please."

  14. Why is it shut down? by pclinger · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The notice tells the owner of the site to stop offering for download a few specific items that the letter claims were on it's site. There was nothing in the letter which stated the entire site must be taken down.

    I can understand ROM images to some extent, but 25 year old coin-op operator/tech manuals?

    Read the letter. It doesn't say to take down any manuals. The person who shut down this site shut it down on their own accord. They could have just removed those specific items for download and they would be in the free-and-clear.

    --
    /. editors made it impossible to link to file:///c:/con/con in my sig. Please just type it in
    1. Re:Why is it shut down? by NukeIear · · Score: 3, Insightful

      He says

      Sorry everyone but stormaster.com has been taken down! I'm tired of dealing with DMCA lawyers.

      So I would guess that after being bothered numerous times he doesn't care if he can remove a few more manuals and make that lawyer go away since another will be pestering him next week.

  15. Come on people... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    The guy was distributing game manuals for Dig Dug and Frogger... when you read 20-year old video game manuals, you're reading COMMUNISM!

  16. Is it just me? by oaf357 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Is it just me or does it seem like these DMCA claims are always targetted at people who can't really fight them?

  17. Clever Idea by Esion+Modnar · · Score: 3, Insightful
    Let's say that your site needs a boost in traffic. Just cook up a fake letter from some non-existent lawyer, saying cease-and-desist, then leak said letter to /. to get the effect we all know and love.

    BAM! Your ISP staggers for half a day or so, but you'll probably enjoy residual traffic as a result of the exposure...

    Not saying that's the case here, but what if...

    Perhaps this has happened already?

    --

    They say the first thing to go is your penis. Well, it's either that or your brain. I forget which...
  18. Coin-op... what? by wirelessbuzzers · · Score: 4, Funny

    a coin-operated video game manual and tech information archive

    Instructions
    1) Select manuals to be read.
    2) Insert coin(s) to buy time.
    3) To extend time, press the red button and insert more coins... ... and don't you dare post a ??? PROFIT!!! joke after this...

    --
    I hereby place the above post in the public domain.