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ESA Rebukes EFF's Request To Exempt Abandoned Games From Some DMCA Rules
eldavojohn writes It's 2015 and the EFF is still submitting requests to alter or exempt certain applications of the draconian DMCA. One such request concerns abandoned games that utilized or required online servers for matchmaking or play (PDF warning) and the attempts taken to archive those games. A given example is Madden '09, which had its servers shut down a mere one and a half years after release. Another is Gamespy and the EA & Nintendo titles that were not migrated to other servers. I'm sure everyone can come up with a once cherished game that required online play that is now abandoned and lost to the ages. While the EFF is asking for exemptions for museums and archivists, the ESA appears to take the stance that it's hacking and all hacking is bad. In prior comments (PDF warning), the ESA has called reverse engineering a proprietary game protocol "a classic wolf in sheep's clothing" as if allowing this evil hacking will loose Sodom & Gomorrah upon the industry. Fellow gamers, these years now that feel like the golden age of online gaming will be the dark ages of games as historians of the future try to recreate what online play was like now for many titles.
Everything is micro transactions... who would want to remember that?
I don't understand why the European Space Agency would be involved in this.
I am on the EFF's side here, but isn't it the game industry's job? If the game industry wants to be taken seriously artistically, it is ultimately the industry's duty to set up ways to preserve the art. If the industry won't take itself seriously, then individuals attempting preservation are going to end up being blocked over and over again by whatever form our trademark and copyright laws take.
these years now that feel like the golden age of online gaming will be the dark ages of games as historians of the future try to recreate what online play was like now for many titles.
While I agree with your premise, you overlook the fact that many of us in the "first gen" of gamers already view this as a "dark age". Personally, I have a fairly impressive game library, spanning a dozen platforms and worth probably tens of thousands of dollars (at original retail price*) worth of games. And I basically stopped buying games about a decade ago, with a few notable exceptions.
Make no mistake, I still game regularly - Between the occasional non-obnoxious modern release, and the back catalog of once-great games that I still haven't played (just finished Fallout a few weeks ago, no idea how I never got into that when it first came out), I figure I have enough material to keep me content for the rest of my life. But I will not play any game that depends on any aspect of the game under the exclusive control of a third party. Open servers and a really viable single-player mode, or GTFO, simple as that.
* Not that I actually paid full retail, which counts as an entirely different problem with modern games - Reselling a game used to mean putting it back in the box (or putting everything you had left in a ziplock bag), and passing it along to someone else for a few bucks. Now, if you even have the option of reselling it, you usually need to do so with the "permission" of the publisher. Fuck that!
Perhaps the security technology in the abandoned games is the similar to that in the non-abandoned games.
If so, the game makers would really not want folks to know how to open the abandoned games.
That would explain the situation.
If so, seems the game makers dug the hole they are in.
You mean I only get to do this one thing for three years and after that the results of such an exemption are back to being illegal again? The DMCA is one bad idea after another.
I hate to tell you but this article is clearly a reference to the Ecological Society of America. Why they have an interest in the DMCA and video game hacking is beyond me.
Momento Mori
Just have the Library of Congress step in and ask to have a copy of every game and its backend supporting software for the archives. Have a game assignement number for tracking like a book. We have an institution, it just needs a storage and process upgrade.
Just refuse to buy any game that can't be played in standalone mode. If it requires an online server, just say no.
If enough people do this, the companies will have to change their perverted business model.
Can you live without your online gaming habit for a year or two?
The point is being missed entirely. If i buy a game that requires infrastructure from the manufacturer to play and the manufacturer decides to just stop providing that infrastructure, all bets are off. I should be free to do whatever I want/need to continue to be able to play that game. if the manufacturer feels like there is still some IP there, then continue to support it. If they feel like they can't afford to continue to support it, then what IP is remaining, really?
As soon as a good becomes "not fit for purpose" the manufacturer of the good should lose all rights associated with it and it should enter the public domain.
...but I recall some economist observing that against market demand, arbitrarily constraining supply will create black markets.
I'm not saying that's how it should be, just how it IS.
I understand that ESA want to control any and all access to products of their developers (on principle, if the developers no longer exist, etc), but I expect that ultimately this will be futile, and lead to their irrelevance sooner rather than later.
-Styopa
Stop buying the crappy new games and bring them to their knees.
I wonder how these people would react if they were told A: their cars needed to have a GPS connection to be allowed to drive, and then B: a few years after owning their cars, the GPS system they used was taken offline and they were told they were SOL and had to buy a new car.
How appropriate. You fight like a cow.
Get free satoshi (Bitcoin) and Dogecoins
The summary (didn't RTFA so please forgive if there's more) clearly states the EFF is bringing up only those games that require a vendor-provided online service to get full functionality and that the vendor has discontinued support for that game. It's not a free for all to open up all games. Only those that the vendor has declared end of life, defunct, abandoned, etc.
Of course the vendors want people to buy the new version of the game instead of wanting to play the one they have. That's the big reason for their objection. It's also a big reason why they take down the online servers.
This shouldn't be that big of a deal. EOL a game, the online services become public domain.
Anyone remember the good old days when we were playing Doom and Monkey Island? 'Cause I don't. Wish there was a possibility to replay those classic originals in a legal way.
I'm assuming this is sarcasm since both of these games are still available for sale on sites like GOG and Steam.
Secret of Monkey Island Special Edition is a remake, but the remake is frame-per-frame compatible with the original. You can switch between the original graphics/UI and the new graphics/UI at the press of a button (F11 for the PC version I think).
For DOOM, not only can you buy it independently on Steam, but buying DOOM 3 BFG Edition also includes both Doom 1 and 2, plus the new Doom 2 campaign released in the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions of the game.
GLaDOS for President 2016! "Well here we are again. It's always such a pleasure." -- GLaDOS, 2011
First off, I believe software should have a different copyright length. (Windows XP's copyright expires sometime after 2100. How crazy is that?) I also believe a "use it or lose it clause" should be added to copyright law. If a publisher or copyright holder ceases to publish, market, support and profit from a product, then after X number of years, that game will fall into public domain. I believe this clause should apply to all copyrights and not just software.
ESA = Entertainment Software Association
Some of us might not be gamers and yet due to the wide applications of the DMCA still thought this article looked worth clicking on.
The ESA I knew was the European Space Agency!
No, we're in a golden age of gaming and have been continuously since the mid-80s.
Alpha Centauri and Civilisation have been updated, expanded and released in newer versions every few years and are now the entry level into grand strategy, with a wealth of far more complex games with significantly more depth.
Quake3 and UT2004 are primitive compared to the Battlefield series - they don't even have usable vehicles!
Some videogames are indeed interactive movies, but many are not. There's more choice than I can remember, games are more affordable than they've ever been and there are multiple high quality options in almost any genre you want to play.
Maybe you're constrained to a platform that doesn't enjoy the diversity and variety available on a PC, but the games exist, they're available, they're very playable and please, get a Dwarf Fortress fortress surviving for a decade before claiming "there are actually less things to do" because trust me, no game before it has even tried to come close.