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posted by martyb on Sunday April 12 2015, @12:21AM   Printer-friendly
from the you-pays-your-money--you-takes-your-chances dept.

Ars Technica has an interesting tidbit today about one of our more hotly discussed topics here... whether or not "abandonware" should continue to receive copyright protection — Entertainment Publishers fight to block third-party revival of “abandoned” game servers

This article concerns the trade industry response to a brief filed by the EFF last November.

A major game industry trade group is fighting back against a proposed DMCA exemption that seeks to give gamers the right to modify games with abandoned online servers in order to restore online gameplay and functionality. The Entertainment Software Association (ESA), with support (.pdf) from the Motion Picture Association of America and Recording Industry Association of America, argues that the proposed exemption would amount to "enabling—and indeed encouraging—the play of pirated games and the unlawful reproduction and distribution of infringing content."

[...] The US Copyright Office will be holding public hearings [PDF] on the proposed DMCA exemptions May 19 through 21 in Washington DC and Los Angeles. The final round of written comments on the rule will be closed on May 1.

My own thoughts on this is likely our payment systems are just as unworkable as copyright law. Mechanisms are now in place to take our money, give us something, then abandon it, yet prohibit us from using it. Maybe its high time we consider a "Millennium Digital Currency Act" for payments so when the vendors want to abandon the service, the money transfers back to to the buyer, and the copyrights transfer back to the seller.

 
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  • (Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 12 2015, @01:21AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 12 2015, @01:21AM (#169177)

    Have you considered that they may be the bad ones here for locking down culture and abusing copyright law in ways it was never intended to be used? The only reason copyright law exists is to benefit society; it's right in the constitution. It is not so publishers or companies can make money; that is just a means to an end. Stopping people from using their own property to do something with data stored on their own equipment because of copyrights that are essentially abandonware is insane. These companies are destroying culture.

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  • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 12 2015, @01:39AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 12 2015, @01:39AM (#169185)

    Have you considered buying the companies and changing their culture-destroying policies from the inside? Where's the Kickstarter campaign to start United Gamers Inc and buy back our cultural heritage from the big bad publishers? Have you considered paying money for anything ever?

    • (Score: 2) by takyon on Sunday April 12 2015, @01:44AM

      by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Sunday April 12 2015, @01:44AM (#169189) Journal

      Paying money for the game ought to be enough.

      You aren't distributing IP under this exemption, you are distributing a patch and operating new servers.

      The game dev's IP is safe, so why waste money purchasing the game dev and its unnecessary IP under your stupid, impractical advice?

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      • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 12 2015, @01:47AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 12 2015, @01:47AM (#169193)

        1. Buy game dev
        2. Sell abandoned games for cheap
        3. Find out gamers are freeloaders
        4. Bankruptcy

        Have fun!

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 12 2015, @01:47AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 12 2015, @01:47AM (#169191)

      Have you considered buying the companies and changing their culture-destroying policies from the inside?

      Have you considered that maintaining an unjust monopoly by using government thugs to enforce it is, in fact, not legitimate, and we shouldn't have to be rich to have rights?

      Have you considered paying money for anything ever?

      Nice non sequitur, Mr. Shill. You've posted quite a few comments here.