Video Game Libraries Lose Legal Appeal To Emulate Physical Game Collections Online (arstechnica.com) 15
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Earlier this year, we reported on the video game archivists asking for a legal DMCA exemption to share Internet-accessible emulated versions of their physical game collections with researchers. Today, the US Copyright Office announced once again that it was denying that request, forcing researchers to travel to far-flung collections for access to the often-rare physical copies of the games they're seeking.
In announcing its decision, the Register of Copyrights for the Library of Congress sided with the Entertainment Software Association and others who argued that the proposed remote access could serve as a legal loophole for a free-to-access "online arcade" that could harm the market for classic gaming re-releases. This argument resonated with the Copyright Office despite a VGHF study that found 87 percent of those older game titles are currently out of print. "While proponents are correct that some older games will not have a reissue market, they concede there is a 'healthy' market for other reissued games and that the industry has been making 'greater concerted efforts' to reissue games," the Register writes in her decision. "Further, while the Register appreciates that proponents have suggested broad safeguards that could deter recreational uses of video games in some cases, she believes that such requirements are not specific enough to conclude that they would prevent market harms."
A DMCA exemption for remote sharing already exists for non-video-game computer software that is merely "functional," as the Register notes. But the same fair use arguments that allow for that sharing don't apply to video games because they are "often highly expressive in nature," the Register writes. In an odd footnote, the Register also notes that emulation of classic game consoles, while not infringing in its own right, has been "historically associated with piracy," thus "rais[ing] a potential concern" for any emulated remote access to library game catalogs. That footnote paradoxically cites Video Game History Foundation (VGHF) founder and director Frank Cifaldi's 2016 Game Developers Conference talk on the demonization of emulation and its importance to video game preservation. "The moment I became the Joker is when someone in charge of copyright law watched my GDC talk about how it's wrong to associate emulation with piracy and their takeaway was 'emulation is associated with piracy,'" Cifaldi quipped in a social media post.
In announcing its decision, the Register of Copyrights for the Library of Congress sided with the Entertainment Software Association and others who argued that the proposed remote access could serve as a legal loophole for a free-to-access "online arcade" that could harm the market for classic gaming re-releases. This argument resonated with the Copyright Office despite a VGHF study that found 87 percent of those older game titles are currently out of print. "While proponents are correct that some older games will not have a reissue market, they concede there is a 'healthy' market for other reissued games and that the industry has been making 'greater concerted efforts' to reissue games," the Register writes in her decision. "Further, while the Register appreciates that proponents have suggested broad safeguards that could deter recreational uses of video games in some cases, she believes that such requirements are not specific enough to conclude that they would prevent market harms."
A DMCA exemption for remote sharing already exists for non-video-game computer software that is merely "functional," as the Register notes. But the same fair use arguments that allow for that sharing don't apply to video games because they are "often highly expressive in nature," the Register writes. In an odd footnote, the Register also notes that emulation of classic game consoles, while not infringing in its own right, has been "historically associated with piracy," thus "rais[ing] a potential concern" for any emulated remote access to library game catalogs. That footnote paradoxically cites Video Game History Foundation (VGHF) founder and director Frank Cifaldi's 2016 Game Developers Conference talk on the demonization of emulation and its importance to video game preservation. "The moment I became the Joker is when someone in charge of copyright law watched my GDC talk about how it's wrong to associate emulation with piracy and their takeaway was 'emulation is associated with piracy,'" Cifaldi quipped in a social media post.
In related news.... (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
...members of the RCLC mysteriously got backyard pools installed to their homes and all-expenses-paid monthlong mediterranean cruises this year while on a government salary...
Since when did Clarence "Uncle" Thomas and Samuel Alito join the copyright office?
oh dear (Score:5, Insightful)
Since playing nice with IP holders isn't an option. I guess piracy was the correct answer all along?
Re: (Score:2)
Yup. Also be sure to pirate their new games, not just the abandonware that they don't even sell anymore.
Re: oh dear (Score:2)
For the older games. The creator of the work was a few people collecting an hourly wage and likely were screwed out of overtime because that's how things used to be in the 80s and 90s. They were paid once and no amount of game sales alters their compensation 40+ years later.
Re: (Score:2)
> For the older games. The creator of the work was a few people collecting an hourly wage
Or a couple of kids publishing from their bedroom.
Worms being notable example.
Re: (Score:2)
> It's also an infringement to not protect that work up until it enters the public domain
If such an event will be able to happen ever again.
There are many publishers and authors dead set against the Public Domain. As far as they are concerned entering the Public Domain is the worst thing that can happen.
Publishers and Authors in the UK recently managed to kill the Governments attempt to refurbish the UK copyright system to allow it to move into the 21st century. They managed to create a FUD campaign th
Re:oh dear (Score:4, Insightful)
that could harm the market for classic gaming re-releases
Note the could in that sentance. It's not about re-releases that have already happened. This is about entitlement to profits for re-releases that they haven't even considered yet.
I.e. They don't want to compete with their previous offerings. They want the Disney Vault model where the shit degrades and after a time they can put back out the exact same crap (NoW wItH mOrE PiXeLs!!!!!) and charge full price as if it was a new IP.
Funny how the owners of Imaginary Property think that they should be the only market where the owners are able to charge indefinitely for the labor that was done exactly once.
Hey, here's an idea can we export that to other industries? I'm sure the contractors that made their indoor plumbing would like to get paid for each use in perpetuity.....
It's OK, this problem will pass (Score:3)
In another generation, abandoned games won't just have hardware compatibility issues to overcome, you'll have to reverse engineer the server side as well as even single player games will have cloud-hosted code to keep you on the subscription hook in case you've cracked the authentication protection.
That's if they don't finally manage to go full-streaming at some point so all you really have is a streaming client giving you a Citrix-like connection to a game where the actual game code never touches your hardware at all.
Re: (Score:3)
you'll have to reverse engineer the server side as well as even single player games will have cloud-hosted code to keep you on the subscription hook
I take it you've never heard of MMOs and Mobile / Gatcha games?
connection to a game where the actual game code never touches your hardware at all.
Congratulations you just successfully identified the industry's long term goal.
Not kidding either. It's far easier to charge for a subscription service if the person paying only ever gets to look at the product. Without gaining what makes the product valuable (the intractability) in the process.
One day in the not too distant future kids won't even know what a game console even is. Nor will they have any idea that there used to be games wh
Re: (Score:2)
Genshin Impact, the big Gatcha, also downloads and can thus be modified.
By the time these companies can force their devs to render everything server-side, we will already have models to generate erm... models from imagery, ex.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
So that we'll be able to recreate a game just by recording a few seconds of it. It's an arms race for sure, but the game industry has always been like that.
It was doomed (Score:2)
When, like the movie industry, the video game industry is struggling to come up with AAA-tier new IP and a huge proportion of the new releases are just re-iterations and re-launches of old titles they'd be idiots to not fight this tooth and nail.
Obviously never played a game (Score:2)
> a VGHF study that found 87 percent of those older game titles are currently out of print. "While proponents are correct that some older games will not have a reissue market, they concede there is a 'healthy' market for other reissued games and that the industry has been making 'greater concerted efforts' to reissue games,
Basically translates to:
You cant play 87% of the games as they are out of print and very likely will never be re-released. So play different games.
Which translates to:
Games are just ga