Publishers are absolutely terrified "preserved video games would be used for recreational purposes," so the US copyright office has struck down a major effort for game preservation
Publishers are absolutely terrified "preserved video games would be used for recreational purposes," so the US copyright office has struck down a major effort for game preservation
"This fails the needs of citizens in favor of a weak sauce argument from the industry, and it's really disappointing"
You're viewing a single thread.
Recreational purposes, like... having fun? How dare I play an older video game for free! I need to be constantly giving money to huge companies for increasingly terrible games! Won't someone please think of the quarterly numbers!
I don't understand are they saying we can't buy old games? This would put places like Vintage Stock out of business.
They're saying the only way you can get the games legally is by buying them. But since the products aren't made anymore, if it's unavailable for purchase, it will be impossible for you to play (legally).
They were essentially trying to preserve vintage games with a library style check-out system of digital copies of the games you can play with an emulator. The ruling concluded that was not legal, since the preserved games were used for recreational use. As it stands, if the last physical copy of a game is lost, the only one that would legally have the game files would hypothetically be the original publisher (assuming they kept the original files) and it would be entirely up to the publisher how they shared it. If they decided to keep it to themselves, it would be lost to the public (by any legal means, at least).
Their argument doesn't really make sense to me, though. I guess we should also ban any books that are used for recreational purposes. If a book is not a non-fiction textbook, someone might read it for fun, which is unacceptable. I think we should get rid of 1984 from all the libraries, since people might read it for enjoyment.
Oh fuck that is a horrible ruling. We need to have it overturn. Better yet have Congress create a law making it legal.
Because I could absolutely seeing Republicans, along with Publishers using this ruling to outlaw libraries. Hell Libby would become illegal if they passed this to books.