Topic: DMCA Changed on Game Preservation...For The Better

[MysterD]

Bluesnews -> DMCA Laws Have Been Changed...For The Better for preserving old games.
Kickstarter -> More details from The Museum of Arts And Digital Entertainment 2.0
See Pages 52-56 of this legal doc on the DMCA Changes.

This allows for copy-protection to be circumvented on abandoned games, including when resurrecting them.
Jailbreaking both old consoles + old console games going if those are all abandoned, as well can be done.
Servers can be brought back, if necessary to keep the online component of games to still be able to be played.

[Cobra951]

Accordingly, based on the Register's recommendation, the Librarian adopts the following exemption:

(i) Video games in the form of computer programs embodied in physical or downloaded formats that have been lawfully acquired as complete games, when the copyright owner or its authorized representative has ceased to provide access to an external computer server necessary to facilitate an authentication process to enable local gameplay, solely for the purpose of:

(A) Permitting access to the video game to allow copying and modification of the computer program to restore access to the game for personal gameplay on a personal computer or video game console; or

(B) Permitting access to the video game to allow copying and modification of the computer program to restore access to the game on a personal computer or video game console when necessary to allow preservation of the game in a playable form by an eligible library, archives or museum, where such activities are carried out without any purpose of direct or indirect commercial advantage and the video game is not distributed or made available outside of the physical premises of the eligible library, archives or museum.

(ii) Computer programs used to operate video game consoles solely to the extent necessary for an eligible library, archives or museum to engage in the preservation activities described in paragraph (i)(B).

(iii) For purposes of the exemptions in paragraphs (i) and (ii), the following definitions shall apply:

(A) “Complete games” means video games that can be played by users without accessing or reproducing copyrightable content stored or previously stored on an external computer server.

(B) “Ceased to provide access” means that the copyright owner or its authorized representative has either issued an affirmative statement indicating that external server support for the video game has ended and such support is in fact no longer available or, alternatively, server support has been discontinued for a period of at least six months; provided, however, that server support has not since been restored.

(C) “Local gameplay” means gameplay conducted on a personal computer or video game console, or locally connected personal computers or consoles, and not through an online service or facility.

(D) A library, archives or museum is considered “eligible” when the collections of the library, archives or museum are open to the public and/or are routinely made available to researchers who are not affiliated with the library, archives or museum.

https://www.federalregister.gov/articles/2015/10/28/2015-27212/exemption-to-prohibition-on-circumvention-of-copyright-protection-systems-for-access-control#h-21

This is pretty significant, though it still leaves out the likes of Diablo 3 (on PC anyway), since it needs code that is online only to function.  It's a change I thought I'd never see, without killing the horrible law entirely.

I bolded some text to focus on what matters most to us.

[MysterD]

Excellent job on the cut + pasting & the excellent highlighting of important info in that mess of legalese.
Yeah, this is very significant stuff, I must say. This is a good start to fixing these foolish + archaic laws.

I would hope one day when Blizz decides to pull Diablo 3 PC's online b/c it's not popular anymore, nobody's playing online, and the game's really old - they'd just patch the game's Internet-required out + any files we need in a patch just to make the game work offline. I really hope Blizz is eventually smart-enough to preserve their game - since D3 got great thanks to Loot 2.0 + RoS expansion.

From what I know, people really complain about D3 on consoles for its online-play; hacked to crap b/c you have access to all the files on the game-console. That's the only thing I never hear PC gamers complaining about w/ D3 PC online b/c Blizz swings that ban hammer when people cheat + exploit; and we don't have access to everything locally (which keeps hacking the game's files out-of-the-mix).

Though, the console-version of D3's current benefit most people talk about - you guys currently have an offline mode. That must be nice to have.