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U.S. Copyright Office rejects DMCA exemption to support game preservation (www.gamedeveloper.com)

submitted 4 weeks ago by ampersandrew@lemmy.world to c/games@lemmy.world

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This sucks.

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[-] _bcron_@lemmy.world 27 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago)

I can see why the ESA would want to defend IP but it should sadden everyone that they're basically taking thousands upon thousands of titles of abandonware hostage in order to protect a couple hundred that might possibly have some value on the Playstation or Nintendo store or as a bundle on PC at some point in the future.

I used to download abandonware from the mid 80s, monochrome CRPG type stuff, back in the late 90s. Kinda bummed that most of them are probably just gone at this point. CRPG and blobbers, bygone era.

Shame on the Entertainment Software Association, not giving a damn about software.

[-] Ashtear@lemm.ee 13 points 4 weeks ago

A lot of those games are still around, just not in legal distribution channels.

The more at-risk stuff is newer games going forward, such as live-service games or games locked down with DRM that requires authentication to play.

[-] _bcron_@lemmy.world 6 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago)

There's a lot that just vanish into the ether when someone doesn't renew their little abandonware site they built and forgot about a decade ago. Maybe not the big names like Might & Magic, but the smaller titles most people have never heard of. Shit's a bummer if the Internet Archive doesn't get to it because then it probably only exists on a dozen 3.5" floppys in random desks that haven't been cleaned out