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Bloodstar64
11-01-2003, 01:05 AM
Got this from Zophar



Gamasutra has reported that the DMCA might exempt games for older systems! In order to view the article, it requires a registration process, so here's the text in full thanks to etumor:

"In response to a filing by Brewster Kahle of The Internet Archive, Lawrence Lessig of Creative Commons, and others, the Librarian of Congress granted exemptions from copyright protection measures in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act to obsolete videogames. The exemption applies to games that require the original media or hardware as a condition of access, and it determines a format obsolete “if the machine or system necessary to render perceptible a work stored in that format is no longer manufactured or is no longer reasonably available in the commercial marketplace.”

According to the original filing, the exemption was proposed in order to migrate degraded and obsolete works to modern storage systems, and enable “archiving, future scholarship, and commentary.”

Thanks to everyone who told us about this!


w00t!
MottZilla
11-01-2003, 01:08 AM
I hope it goes through. It would be awesome.
Crazy_Link
11-01-2003, 01:11 AM
yeah, that would kewl...

*starts praying*
Kirby of Doom
11-01-2003, 02:09 AM
Would that mean we could post links to old game roms here? :D

Anyway, even if it isn't legal I don't have a problem with old game roms. But this would mean there would be more rom sites since they wouldn't be shut down. Yay!
Bloodstar64
11-01-2003, 02:13 AM
Originally posted by Kirby of Doom
Would that mean we could post links to old game roms here? :D

Anyway, even if it isn't legal I don't have a problem with old game roms. But this would mean there would be more rom sites since they wouldn't be shut down. Yay!

Correct, and I would no longer need to keep this box of shit that's labeled "Old systems" cause I could just play em on the computer. :D
slayer6896
11-01-2003, 02:21 AM
Wrong, it would still be illegal to distribute them.

It is basicaly stating that it will become legal to crack them and archive them on your own personal computer. Not to distribute them.
Bloodstar64
11-01-2003, 02:52 AM
Originally posted by slayer6896
Wrong, it would still be illegal to distribute them.

It is basicaly stating that it will become legal to crack them and archive them on your own personal computer. Not to distribute them.

Still. It's a step closer.
The Savior
11-01-2003, 12:48 PM
Originally posted by slayer6896
Wrong, it would still be illegal to distribute them.

It is basicaly stating that it will become legal to crack them and archive them on your own personal computer. Not to distribute them.

This is legal right now, so long as you own the cracked game...
*b*
11-01-2003, 01:16 PM
but this brings up another question... what defines an 'old' game? like, back in the days of SNES, or 'retired' sytems, as recent as the N64?
Blonde799
11-01-2003, 01:37 PM
“if the machine or system necessary to render perceptible a work stored in that format is no longer manufactured or is no longer reasonably available in the commercial marketplace.”

In other words, if that game isn't being made anymore, and the only place you might be able to get it is Ebay, then it's obsolete and/or old.:p
Bloodstar64
11-01-2003, 04:41 PM
Originally posted by Blonde799
In other words, if that game isn't being made anymore, and the only place you might be able to get it is Ebay, then it's obsolete and/or old.:p

So that would mean everything from the N64 down?
Daarkseid
11-01-2003, 08:27 PM
Originally posted by Bloodstar64
So that would mean everything from the N64 down?

Hah! Not likely. "Reasonably available" is a fairly vague term that could almost mean anything, really. If the system itself is easily procurable in the 2nd hand market(like Ebay), then it could be argued that it is "reasonably available". And then to get around the manufactured part, a company like Nintendo could do something as ridiculous as manufacture token units(like 1) of the systems for which their older titles were last released.

And then of course Nintendo could easily just proect the copyrights for the games by porting them to their newest system.. like their upcoming Legend of Zelda compilation.. That will assure that the Legend of Zelda and Zelda II will be rendered perceptable with a "reasonably available" and "still manufactured" system, the GC.

This new addition to the DMCA isn't going to affect much.. companies, fearing free domain encroachment upon their copyrights, will repackage their older games, and port them to newer systems.
MottZilla
11-01-2003, 09:20 PM
Not to mention, series will never be free to download because the mario, megaman, etc. series are all still be profitted off of. Really all this is, perhaps they will lay off on older things, but did they ever bother anyone before?

Come to think of it, it's the ISDA you gotta worry about.
slayer6896
11-02-2003, 12:45 AM
Originally posted by The Savior
This is legal right now, so long as you own the cracked game...

No, it is legal to back up your games, to a point. If they have a a protection that requires it to be cracked before it can be backed up, it was/is illegal to break the copy protection.

This is stating that obsolete copy protections are now legal to crack to back up as long as you dont distribute copys of the game/software.