
Copyright Office Adds DMCA Exemption for 'Abandoned' Online Games - SargeZT
https://torrentfreak.com/copyright-office-adds-dmca-exemption-for-abandoned-online-games-181026/
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judge2020
Sadly the ruling directly forbids reverse-engineered protocols and custom made
servers that emulate the original server. The ruling also states that these
abandoned online games could only legally run at a museum/library and that
it's against the law to distribute them to the internet or host them publicly.

> and the video game is not distributed or made available outside of the
> physical premises of the eligible library, archives, or museum.

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astrodust
What does it take to get your basement classified as a "private museum"? A
sign?

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Symmetry
You have to convince a human that your basement is a museum in order to make
this work rather than a simple robot. A sign won't be nearly enough.

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Dylan16807
Obviously. But that doesn't help figure out where the boundary is between
"collection" and "museum".

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taneq
This covers legally obtained server code, but what about reverse engineered
third party servers which allow the use of abandoned game clients?

As an example, a popular 'Blizzlike' Vanilla WoW server (ie. authentic to the
original, pre-expansion game) has been built without using the official server
software. Recent announcements from Blizzrd aside, it's hard to argue that the
original game is not abandoned, as it's been unplayable since 2006.

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ex_angry_guy
I do get your point but I wonder if it's really that hard to argue?

I don't think Blizzard will have a hard time defending the stance of "we
haven't abandoned WOW".

and if you enter the world where we consider WOW legally abandoned, publishers
will start re-evaluating their expansion models, possibly for worse?

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esotericn
The original game is radically different in major ways to the current version.

Maps are different, class mechanics are different, races are different, models
are different, enemies and bosses are different, classes are different, etc.

It's a completely different game now under the same banner. Theseus' Ship
comes to mind; yes, there's been a continuous migration process in place, but
you cannot play World of Warcraft v1 any more.

A more reasonable comparison would be Windows 95 vs Windows XP or something.
Yes, XP is backwards compatible, but it's obviously a completely different OS
in most ways aside from the name.

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SketchySeaBeast
Where does one draw the line that it's markedly different? Expansions? Major
patches? When 8.1 is released are we allowed to emulate 8.0? 8.2 means 8.0 is
fair game? Or the day after Wrath of the Lich King and the Burning Crusade?

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dspillett
Perhaps draw the line where client compatibility stops without extra payment?

I've never played WoW nor do I know anyone who still does, so I'm out of
touch. At what point (if any) were users forced to pay extra (a paid for
update and/or increased subs) to continue to play the game? Can those without
the expansions still play? That certainly seems to be a fair place to draw a
line.

Having to accept changed game mechanics via free-but-compulsory patches is a
much harder to define distinction as the matter is very subjective: what to
some is a wonderful improvement may to others be a game breaking change.

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thaumasiotes
> I've never played WoW nor do I know anyone who still does, so I'm out of
> touch. At what point (if any) were users forced to pay extra (a paid for
> update and/or increased subs) to continue to play the game? Can those
> without the expansions still play? That certainly seems to be a fair place
> to draw a line.

It doesn't quite work out the way you're imagining. A WoW expansion does one
thing that require you to buy the expansion: the level cap goes up (e.g. in
Cataclysm the level cap was 80 if you were paid up through Wrath of the Lich
King, but 85 if you had bought Cataclysm). An expansion may or may not also
prevent accounts that haven't bought it from entering new zones.

But it also makes a bunch of other changes that you get whether you want them
or not. Content may be removed from the game, like original Naxxramas. Game
mechanics will shift around. Every raid below the level cap goes out of
support -- it isn't possible to play supported raids without being at the most
recent level cap, and it also isn't possible to play old raids the way they
were when they were current, as mechanics changes are not evaluated for impact
on unsupported raids.

There were so many conceptual problems with having multiple different
expansions that weren't current that Blizzard has moved to the model of
"you've either bought the current expansion, or you haven't" \-- when one
expansion releases, the previous one is now automatically rolled into
everyone's account.

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userbinator
Just recently there was the Right to Repair change, and now this. Looks like
things are going in the right direction.

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bitwize
If they forget to re-exempt it in three years, it becomes a felony again.

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gergles
The process doesn't work like this anymore; now the copyright industry has to
argue that the exemption should be removed and there are a narrow number of
reasons why this could be done.

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joveian
This exception is so limited that I don't even get how it is potentially
considered circumventing DRM to begin with. Once you have legally acquired the
source wouldn't you normally also have the right to modify it to remove the
DRM?

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adonnjohn
Does this open the door to future debate surrounding variations of game
versioning as time continues forward?

Let's say Blizzard does implement WoW Classic, but they choose a specific
permutation of classic that makes some people happy and others angry. Do those
who wish for variant A of WoW classic but get a drastically different variant
B have any legal leg to stand on for their version of the game being
abandoned?

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swiley
Maybe this will create small arcade like "museums" where people go to legally
play old games with each other.

That would be neat.

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behringer
Wow this is really great. It's now a use it or lose it sort of copyright
protection for online games.

I have an idea of supporting an online game that is long forgotten, one day.
Now it'll be totally legal for me to work on it :)

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rtkwe
The exemption is very limited:

>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.

This is only for non-profit museums etc. so third party servers are still not
legally allowed. It's a big step in the right direction and I think it's a
good sign that one day we might get an exemption that allows third party
servers for home play but it's not there quite yet. It also requires a
statement saying the owner is abandoning support and it remains to be seen if
the standard "we're shutting down all the servers required to play this game"
will count legally or not.

[0] [https://s3.amazonaws.com/public-
inspection.federalregister.g...](https://s3.amazonaws.com/public-
inspection.federalregister.gov/2018-23241.pdf) pg 59

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behringer
Ah that sucks. I'll have to read through it.

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passwd
I don't know how it looks technically, but it's often highlighted that many
digital sales are actually in form of a lease (or right to use), and not an
actual purchase of a product. How would this work then?

