MADE petitioning US Copyright Office to save Online Games

[WMGroomAK]

As a part of the three year review of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), the Museum of Art & Digital Entertainment (MADE) is petitioning the US Copyright Office to allow for abandoned games that rely on a connection to online servers to be excluded from the anti-circumvention provisions.  Essentially, once a game company shuts down a server to a game that requires an internet connection to be able to play, people and museums would be able to preserve the game for future play. 

https://torrentfreak.com/gamers-want-dmca-exemption-for-abandoned-online-games-171221/

Quote

The U.S. Copyright Office is considering whether or not to update the DMCA’s anti-circumvention provisions, which prevent the public from tinkering with DRM-protected content and devices.

These provisions are renewed every three years. To allow individuals and organizations to chime in, the Office traditionally launches a public consultation, before it makes any decisions.

This week a series of new responses were received and many of these focused on abandoned games. As is true for most software, games have a limited lifespan, so after a few years they are no longer supported by manufacturers.

To preserve these games for future generations and nostalgic gamers, the Copyright Office previously included game preservation exemptions. This means that libraries, archives and museums can use emulators and other circumvention tools to make old classics playable.

However, these exemptions are limited and do not apply to games that require a connection to an online server, which includes most recent games. When the online servers are taken down, the game simply disappears forever.

...

“Although the Current Exemption does not cover it, preservation of online video games is now critical,” MADE writes in its comment to the Copyright Office.

“Online games have become ubiquitous and are only growing in popularity. For example, an estimated fifty-three percent of gamers play multiplayer games at least once a week, and spend, on average, six hours a week playing with others online.”

During the previous review, similar calls for an online exemption were made but, at the time, the Register of Copyrights noted that multiplayer games could still be played on local area networks.

“Today, however, local multiplayer options are increasingly rare, and many games no longer support LAN connected multiplayer capability,” MADE counters, adding that nowadays even some single-player games require an online connection.

“More troubling still to archivists, many video games rely on server connectivity to function in single-player mode and become unplayable when servers shut down.”

MADE asks the Copyright Office to extend the current exemptions and include games with an online connection as well. This would allow libraries, archives, and museums to operate servers for these abandoned games and keep them alive.

The nonprofit museum is not alone in its call, with digital rights group Public Knowledge submitting a similar comment. They also highlight the need to preserve online games. Not just for nostalgic gamers, but also for researchers and scholars.

This issue is more relevant than ever before, as hundreds of online multiplayer games have been abandoned already.

“It is difficult to quantify the number of multiplayer servers that have been shut down in recent years. However, Electronic Arts’ ‘Online Services Shutdown’ list is one illustrative example,” Public Knowledge writes.

“The list — which is littered with popular franchises such as FIFA World Cup, Nascar, and The Sims — currently stands at 319 games and servers discontinued since 2013, or just over one game per week since 2012.”

My personal take is that if a game company abandons a server necessary for the playing of a game that I have purchased, then there should be tools around for me to be able to still play that game.  This is especially the case as more single player games are relying on server connections for validating DRM licenses (looking at you Denuvo)...

[The Benjamins]

A example of a game I want to play is Chromehounds, but its a online only game and now that the servers are off, no one can play it.

 

it was a Xbox 360 Mech game with 3 factions that fought for control over the map, once a faction wins the game resets. all Mech parts had unique stats and different types per faction. (you can swap factions)

[TheGlenlivet]

Interesting.

So on one hand, you paid for the game so you should be able to play it even if there are no servers up from the company that made it.

 

On the other, it's the company's game and they control the servers.  Your purchase price may or may not include access to the game through any other servers.

 

 

 

[Ryujin2003]

Let's get some online servers for Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force!

 

 

I think this is awesome. I did a research project that has to be in line with writing and technology, so I focused on online RPG (forum based) as well as online MMORPGs. The paper came out great, but I still across a free sources that argued that these old discontinued games and platforms are party of our cultural history and need to be retained, maintained, and accessible. If a developer stops supporting it, it should be cataloged and eligible for others to view globally, much like an online library

 

I'm pretty sure this is what they were eluding to. Pretty sweet. I'll look up my source and post it later tonight in case anyone is interested.

[samcool55]

I really wished this existed years ago...

Raycity for example was imo a fantastic racing MMO, but EA took it down even tho a bunch of people still played it, i'm quite sure it's gone forever and will never be archived properly.

 

 

[mr moose]

I agree with this, In fact I  think that any IP that is not being used should become public domain.  So long as the anyone who does use it doesn't do so for financial gain.  I also think the process should be reversible.  Game companies should be able to choose to reinstate servers and maintain old games,  basically this would allow game companies to allow a game to go pubic domain without risking losing all rights to it.  Currently it is better for companies to sit on IP than it is to lose money running servers. 

[HarryNyquist]

32 minutes ago, Ryujin2003 said:

Let's get some online servers for Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force!

Doesn't that have the option to use dedicated servers & listen servers? Been a while since I played.

[Matu20]

It seems I am in the minority, but everything has it's course, death is inevitable. And the need of the many outweigh the need of the few. 

[bcredeur97]

inb4 battlefield heroes ppl bring it back yet again

[jagdtigger]

5 minutes ago, Matu20 said:

It seems I am in the minority, but everything has it's course, death is inevitable. And the need of the many outweigh the need of the few. 

More like insanity, comparing this to death....

[iRileyx]

1 minute ago, jagdtigger said:

More like insanity, comparing this to death....

Pretty sure he's referring to the death of the game servers. 

[Bananasplit_00]

Huh, what about old game versions then? Like you have the client for say 1.0 of the game, and then a major patch arrives, can you then legally run and use 1.0 servers? 

[jagdtigger]

Just now, RKRiley said:

Pretty sure he's referring to the death of the game servers. 

Still insanity. Just because something is old it doesnt mean it should disappear, let alone force it artificially. This state of affairs is only good for one thing, to allow the studios to kill their games at will and thus force consumers to buy their "newer" games. And its getting even worse with micro transactions... Soon all the games that dont have it will be killed and all we have left is parasitic money sucking "games"... (like it or not this is also a possibility, and going by the current trends it will happen)

[mr moose]

9 hours ago, Bananasplit_00 said:

Huh, what about old game versions then? Like you have the client for say 1.0 of the game, and then a major patch arrives, can you then legally run and use 1.0 servers? 

That's a good question.  I reckon it would probably go in favor of the IP owners in that situation.  The IP would in most cases still be an intrinsic part of the game and games typically really only add new features/minor changes and fix bugs.   I think it would have to be something that has evolved a long way from the original to be almost considered a different game (maybe the same difference as Arena and  Skyrim or somewhere along that path?).   

[Bananasplit_00]

24 minutes ago, mr moose said:

That's a good question.  I reckon it would probably go in favor of the IP owners in that situation.  The IP would in most cases still be an intrinsic part of the game and games typically really only add new features/minor changes and fix bugs.   I think it would have to be something that has evolved a long way from the original to be almost considered a different game (maybe the same difference as Arena and  Skyrim or somewhere along that path?).   

Yah my thoughts were instantly on, can I if this gets accepted, now run my own Paladins OB63 servers now that they overhauled and screwed up a lot of the game honestly doubt that I could, seeing as most of the core gameplay is still the same, but I'm thinking that a version of closed beta could be run seeing as that is barely the same game