The U.S. Copyright Office denied an exemption from the DMCA to allow gaming historians to access out-of-print games they can’t legally get.

“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.”

  • @rottingleafEnglish
    4•1 month ago

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

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

    • @LavenderDay3544English
      2•1 month ago

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

    • @tehn00biEnglish
      1•1 month 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.