The U.S. Copyright Office has formally rejected a request for an exemption from the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) that would allow historians and researchers to remotely access video games for research and preservation purposes.
The Video Game History Foundation has been advocating for this exemption for three years, working with the Software Preservation Network to highlight how important preservation is and why out-of-print games should be accessible for academic purposes. Ta.
Together, the groups advocated that those who maintain video game libraries and archives should be able to remove copy protection from games so that researchers of all backgrounds can access them remotely.
This is an effort to ensure that video games remain properly preserved and accessible. A recent study by VGHF found that approximately 87% of video games released in the United States before 2010 are out of print and therefore extremely difficult to find. However, they remain an important part of history due to their technological relevance and cultural accumulation.
VHGF is working with the Software Preservation Network to fight back against restrictive DMCA rulings that prevent the sharing of these out-of-print works, allowing “greater access and legal permissions to preserve video games,” and creating more We hope to create support. Libraries and archives that address the history of video games.
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Thanks to a recent ruling from the U.S. Copyright Office, the status quo remains the same. This means that anyone who wants to research, analyze, or archive out-of-print games must go to a library or other institution and interact with these works firsthand. This is despite media such as film and television becoming widely available to all researchers through digital platforms.
Reasoning for the ruling, the U.S. Copyright Office stated in denying the exemption that allowing external access to video games would likely infringe on existing copyright protections and could cause “market harm” from the legacy video game market. He claimed to have sex.
VGHF has committed to continuing to fight to make video games remotely accessible and to continue raising awareness of the enormous preservation issues facing the gaming industry.
Industry stakeholders disappointed with the outcome of VHGF’s lobbying efforts are encouraged to “call on leaders to promote further support for library and archive work within industry associations” as the fight for change continues. has been done.
