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.”

  • @Blue_MorphoEnglish
    1•23 days ago

    Physical rentals are still legal. This is only about the legality of online rom downloads.

    • @ArgentRavenEnglish
      1•23 days ago

      I’m speaking mainly of the distrust against the public having access for fear that we’d abuse it and not give them a cut. We can’t have access to these things now, but we used to. Regardless of form, regardless of piracy.

      It’s more of a move to restrict ownership when you make a purchase, that has a farther reach than just games. I could see this being applied to cars, houses, etc. In that you only rent a license, and don’t actually own anything. I see this as just a first step, and the logic they use to justify it doesn’t make sense.

      • @Blue_MorphoEnglish
        1•23 days ago

        We can’t have access to these things now, but we used to.

        ??? There was no change. It was always illegal. This was a petition to change it to be legal and the petition was denied.

        Despite it being illegal, Internet Archive has hosted and I hope will continue to host rom collections like tiny best set go.