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Feds Say You Don’t Have a Right to Check Out Retro Video Games Like Library Books (gizmodo.com)

submitted 3 weeks ago by iN8sWoRLd@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world

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"Most of the world’s video games from close to 50 years of history are effectively, legally dead. A Video Games History Foundation study found you can’t buy nearly 90% of games from before 2010. Preservationists have been looking for ways to allow people to legally access gaming history, but the U.S. Copyright Office dealt them a heavy blow Friday. Feds declared that you or any researcher has no right to access old games under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, or DMCA."

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[–] CosmoNova@lemmy.world 134 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

Read a comment a while ago that if libraries weren't a thing today and someone would propose them, the FBI would be on their ass and stalk after them for even suggesting such radical views. Copyright law is utterly broken and a disservice to society in it's current form and execution. Politicians need to get their fat fingers out of the stock market by law.

[–] tehn00bi@lemmy.world 39 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

I really feel like the source code needs to be released after 25 years. We need to be able to protect older games.

[–] wavebeam@lemmy.world 8 points 3 weeks ago

I’ve been saying that we need to have a law on the books to require any online components of a game be required to have the source to those features be released upon closure of the online service. I would be fine with them then being except from any security liability for anyone who gets hacked by use of that software and even retaining ownership of the IP, so no one could sell access to the service, but being able to stand up fan-run servers for old Xbox-live games or dead MMOs more easily would be really great. I’m locked out of so many PlayStation trophies simply because online servers have been down for ages now.

[–] rottingleaf@lemmy.world 4 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

There's often no in any way complete source code after 25 years.

Media degrade, get forgotten hell knows where, get occasionally destroyed.

[–] LavenderDay3544@lemmy.world 2 points 3 weeks ago

All things that can be prevented in the future if you start today.

[–] tehn00bi@lemmy.world 1 points 3 weeks ago

Yeah, I know it’s a pipe dream, but really, there should be something that opens source code up. Too much company history gets lost or forgotten because people forget. Plus think about how much value you can gain as a student seeing how people accomplished things with minimal resources.

[–] turkalino@lemmy.yachts 3 points 3 weeks ago

archive.org is the modern proposal of a library, and yeah, look what’s happened to them