Archivists Want Broader DMCA Exemption for 'Abandoned' Online Games (torrentfreak.com) 45
Several organizations have asked the Copyright Office to renew the exemption to the DMCA's DRM circumvention restrictions. This would allow, they argued, abandoned online games to be preserved for future generations. In addition, the Software Preservation Network and the Library Copyright Alliance have asked for an expansion to allow these games to be made available more broadly.
Re: Orange man bad (Score:2)
It is only Abandoned until (Score:4, Insightful)
The instant that happens the value and interest in ownership goes up exponentially on the rumor.
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just one of the many problems with unrestrained capitalism. Maybe folks could just let kids play some really old games without trying to monetize it? Not likely.
Copyright (Score:1)
Not sure what a government-granted monopoly on intangible property has to do with capitalism per se, but OK.
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Umm, yeah, where else would a law that arbitrarily prevents you from copying something unless you created the original come from?
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I mean what is the current law that has "been" purchased from the government. Something like life of the creator + 70 years, +Micky Mouse going public domain, plus infinity.
Do corps ever die? Does anything ever go public domain anymore.
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America - we have the best government money can buy. Just buying laws is for chumps.
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Regulation (Score:2)
OP: This is the problem with unrestrained capitalism
Me: Not sure what a government regulation creating false monopolies has to do with capitalism
You: Capitalism favors regulatory capture
So the problem is that there isn't enough regulation, we need more regulation, but our system favors companies who abuse the regulations.
Maybe the government shouldn't be in the business of granting imaginary rights to imaginary property in the first place? Copyright has it's roots in the English government forcing printers
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Copyright has it's roots in the English government forcing printers to be licensed, to prevent the publication of material critical of the government.
The modern convention of copyright does. Copyright itself has its roots in Alexandria, with a policy of copying designed to preserve knowledge.
You should have to submit your works for archival in order to get copyright. And copyright terms should expire in a reasonable time frame. Culture is moving faster now than it was when copyright terms were created, yet they are longer than ever before. That's ass-backwards from a cultural standpoint, and only makes sense in the context of capitalism-over-all.
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Obviously the video game scene was way better in Soviet Russia where all ideas were owned by the state.
https://www.cnn.com/style/arti... [cnn.com]
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Obviously the video game scene was way better in Soviet Russia where all ideas were owned by the state.
https://www.cnn.com/style/arti... [cnn.com]
Do you keep your AR15 with you at all times?
The commies and virus hoaxers are everywhere - don't be a fool!
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The only way to fix this is to reduce the copyright term to something sensible.
Occasionally older stuff becomes profitable again. A song gets used in a movie or advert, a game gets bundled into a compilation like the recent "mini" consoles. Nintendo just announced a 35th anniversary Mario bundle with ports of older games that should be well out of copyright by now.
Capitalists will hoard everything they can on the off chance it makes money again one day unless forced to relinquish it.
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> The only way to fix this is to reduce the copyright term to something sensible.
Not many people realize that the dangers of long copyright was debated back in 1841 (!) by Thomas Babington Macaulay. Before it went defunct kuro5hin back in 2002 had this article [slashdot.org] that opened with:
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or watch some really old cartoons of, say, a mouse. Not a chance.
On the other hand, if value in old games is suddenly perceived by the companies runnign them, they might not be so quick to turn off the servers and prevent the games from being played.
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But if no one does, which is the case with the crushing majority of em, well.
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Until someone shows interest.
You can say the same about sunken ships, yet curiously we still manage to have salvage laws. Somehow that field of law needs to crossed with copyrights for cases like these.
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Indeed. I believe the same thing happened when Google started to scan books. As soon as they became accessible the trolls came out of the woodwork.
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Easy.
Require annual renewals for copyright after a certain period of time, say 20 years.
And place some rules to make sure Disney does not gobble up small artists' work when they forget about it. Maybe allow only non-commercial derivatives, or price based on incomes, etc.
Don't let cultural artifacts be locked away in a vault.
Too intelligent to be done (Score:2)
This is exactly the kind of thing American Plutocratic government screws up. Cares too much about possible money instead of the general population. All the while pretending they are capitalists instead of plutocrats.
All these games that came with video cards... (Score:2)
... all these windows95 classics that do dumb web checks before they'll install. Not only should circumventing that shit be exempted from the DMCA, the companies that did it should be required to release the unlocking protocols.
City. Of. Heroes. (Score:4, Insightful)
Nuff said.
Yo Grark
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No mod points right now. Or I'd throw a few infinities of them at you.
If you want to be godlike, play anything.
If you want to be a GOD, play a TANK!
Re:City. Of. Heroes. (Score:5, Informative)
Shhhhh [gamexguide.com]
Yo Grark
Re: City. Of. Heroes. (Score:1)
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Homecoming seems to exist with some agreement. Nobody's come after them, and they aren't for profit (but do accept donations for running the servers.)
I have a theory the owners of the IP are letting it less to be nice than to eviscerate upcoming superhero MMORPGs. But that's my cynical nature. They pulled a lot of outrage onto themselves needlessly, and this buys goodwill on the cheap, at the very least.
I was a base constructor. Imagine someone shutting down Minecraft, taking all the servers, public and
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Right. But there's a big difference between being "suffered" and actually having rights to run the game.
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It is pitch black, you are likely to be eaten by a grue.
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I want UMK 3 Wave Net & golden tee (dial up) t (Score:2)
I want UMK 3 Wave Net & golden tee (dial up) to be in mame some day with some kind of the old server back side.
old flash / shockwave games need to be saved! (Score:2)
old flash / shockwave games need to be saved!
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Flashpoint already did. like 75k games saved. Hundreds of GB to download.
Easy solution (Score:1)
Remove the DRM (legally) in any country that isn't USA
then carry on, you cant be held responsible if someone in another country removes the DRM
Silent Hunter 4 Abandoned Netplay (Score:3)
Ind (Score:2)
I would like to see some kind of gentlemen's agreement in their shrink wrap boilerplate where, if a company shuts down an mmorpg, they agree to sell it to someone who must bring servers back up (with accounts intact), or release it for open private servers.
The inducement would be people are more likely to feel confident in the long-term existence of the game.