An anonymous reader writes:
A major game industry trade group is fighting back against a proposed DMCA exemption that seeks to give gamers the right to modify games with abandoned online servers in order to restore online gameplay and functionality. The Entertainment Software Association (ESA), with support from the Motion Picture Association of America and Recording Industry Association of America, argues that the proposed exemption would amount to 'enabling—and indeed encouraging—the play of pirated games and the unlawful reproduction and distribution of infringing content.' The argument centers on a proposed exemption to the DMCA's DRM circumvention rules for games whose publishers have abandoned the online servers that represented the only official way to access online gameplay or authentication services. Last November, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) formally requested that users of such games be legally allowed to modify software and hardware to get around those dormant authentication server checks or to restore online gameplay through third-party servers. In a 71-page brief, though, the ESA says that these kinds of workarounds can't be separated out from the wider piracy-prevention functions that the DMCA protects against. To add third-party server support to a console game, for instance, the ESA argues that a user has to first get around access controls built into the software and the hardware itself to modify the code. 'Consequently, the proposed exemption would, in effect, eviscerate virtually all forms of access protection used to prevent video game piracy.'
