

EFF asks for the right to revive “abandoned” online games - sinak
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2014/11/eff-asks-for-the-right-to-revive-abandoned-online-games

======
abakker
Bungie specifically allowed this to happen with the old Myth franchise. They
open-sourced their bungie net code when they shut it down. Since then, several
fan sites have kept the servers alive. The game was published in 1997.

~~~
Gracana
Bungie released Marathon for free as well (including all assets and code).

~~~
madsushi
There was also some work by Bungie earlier this year to keep Halo PC (11 years
old) online after GameSpy shut down.

[http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014-05-12-bungie-to-
updat...](http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014-05-12-bungie-to-update-halo-
pc-with-server-fix)

(disclaimer: I work for Bungie, but not on that project)

~~~
joshmn
I believe it was actually the work of a member of the Halo PC community; one
non-affiliated programmer aliased as "btcc22" who kept it alive.

Soon after the GameSpy services shut down, he wrote an emulator to replace the
official master server. Bungie then (shockingly) released v1.10 to point the
game to the new server, and stepped in and ate the cost of the AWS services
used to power the lobby.

Source: I gave my life to that game for a very, very long time and still check
in on the community every now and then.

Fun fact: Eric Koger, the CEO of ModCloth.com, also spent quite a bit of time
reloading his pistol and rifle.

~~~
Mandatum
He's still really active today and I can't find any reference to his real
name. Bungie, hire him!

~~~
joshmn
I talk to him regularly. I'm sure Bungie has his info, but if anyone is
reading this and wants to contact him directly, I can provide an intro.

------
teddyh
Sadly, I don’t think the game companies are going to accept this – they are
probably afraid that legitimizing this will make _development_ of replacement
server code start early (in anticipation of the shutdown of the official
servers) and that the _existence_ of working code, even though it will somehow
be illegal to run, will still be run by many people, loosening the company’s
iron grip of the players through the official servers.

~~~
0942v8653
Which is sad considering the "iron grip" is not really going to help them
much; for an extreme example look at what server mods did for Minecraft.

~~~
jiggy2011
Most of the minecraft money comes from selling copies of the client, not from
server subscriptions as in the case of WoW.

~~~
gizmo686
To clarify this point, the Minecraft server is free to download [0], even if
you have not purchased the game at all.

[0] [https://minecraft.net/download](https://minecraft.net/download)

------
jkscm
Correct me if I am wrong but the statement "game’s audiovisual content is
primarily stored on the developer’s server and not in the client" is not true
for any mmo.

3D models and audio are saved to the clients disk. It's the state of the
persistent world that is stored on the server.

~~~
TazeTSchnitzel
Hmm. This is true for WoW if you don't have a full install.

~~~
grimman
This only allows for a streaming install. It's without question _definitely_
primarily stored on the individual users' harddrives. Once you've downloaded
the textures/models/whatever, you will not be requesting them from the server
ever again.

~~~
sehugg
Yeah there's even an open source map viewer, all you need is the DVD:
[http://wowmapview.sourceforge.net/](http://wowmapview.sourceforge.net/)

------
neito
I'm kinda disappointed that they're carving out a huge exception for MMO-style
games. If anything, I think that (if only due to the social structures that
evolve within them) they're the most valuable but fragile types of online
games.

~~~
Zikes
Allegiance [1] is an example of this happening in the MMO space.

[1]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allegiance_(video_game)](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allegiance_\(video_game\))

~~~
FranOntanaya
And for further reference:
[http://www.freeallegiance.org/forums/index.php?act=home](http://www.freeallegiance.org/forums/index.php?act=home)

This game has really great mechanics with a really huge emphasis on teamwork.
It was probably ahead of its time when it was released.

~~~
viewer5
At work so I can't click the link--is that game still alive? I played it a
little when I was in high school.

~~~
FranOntanaya
Friday nights and weekends, although I haven't played it in years, basically
since I switched to Linux.

------
deanclatworthy
I believe EA gave permission for xwis.net to do this for Red Alert 2. You can
sign up with a legitimate key and it works as normal as the protocol was
reverse engineered and DNS taken over :)

This was probably straightforward for an old game like this but I can't
imagine that reverse engineering the infrastructure required for modern games
is feasible. I doubt games companies will have the cash or resources spare to
consider this from the beginning nor years after.

------
treehau5
If we could get "NoX" by Westwood servers back online with clan matches and
rankings I just may die a happy man

~~~
jgh
Hear, hear!

------
ChuckMcM
Does anyone know if the previous abandonware allowances are still in effect?

[1] [http://www.gamespot.com/articles/abandonware-now-
legal/1100-...](http://www.gamespot.com/articles/abandonware-now-
legal/1100-6162308/)

~~~
eli
Nope, that exemption for video games was not renewed in 2012. The EFF lost
that round.

If you're curious, the Copyright Office discusses their reasoning for and the
arguments on both sides starting on page 42 of
[https://www.eff.org/files/filenode/ruling2012.pdf](https://www.eff.org/files/filenode/ruling2012.pdf)

~~~
Flenser
From page 49 (emphasis mine)

> The Register further found that even if proponents had satisfied their
> burden of establishing noninfringing uses, they nonetheless failed to
> demonstrate that video game console access controls have or are likely to
> have a substantial adverse impact on such uses. Proponents identified _two
> broad categories of activities that were allegedly threatened by the
> prohibition on circumvention, scientific research and homebrew software
> development_.

So it looks like the EFF are going at it from the abandonment angle this time
having failed with the science and homebrew arguments. I'd say they have a
better chance of making their case this time.

------
kissickas
Am I the only one still concerned that this is all still in the power of the
Library of Congress? It's certainly nice when they're promoting openness and
consumer rights, but I'm not sure I like the idea of leaving these choices up
to unelected bureaucrats.

------
Shivetya
I am not a hundred percent behind this in the realm of where the game had no
means to be played without the server active. This mostly concerns MMOs. If a
stand alone game is hobbled by lack of authentication servers or cannot
perform mulitplayer without them I see little issue with the idea of a work
around.

However the sub model that most MMOs work under feels more like a lease than
ownership to me

~~~
0x5f3759df-i
MMO's are specifically excempt

------
djyaz1200
Seizing the "moral high ground" in an attempt to get flappy birds back!

------
subless
I actually started a petition about this a year or two ago. Check it out and
sign it: [http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/let-memories-
live/](http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/let-memories-live/)

------
austinstorm
This is neat, so there's no chance it will happen.

------
mahouse
I wish this could apply to old WoW expansions.

~~~
teepo
For sure. Or offer "Vanilla" servers. I remember back in the day Ultima Online
servers would pop up form time to time with the classic UI.

~~~
crazypyro
FWIW, there is a long history of illegal private servers that offer Vanilla
and specific xpac servers for WoW. They are especially popular with people
that are into player versus player because people tend to have certain xpacs
that they believe were more fun for a variety of specific reasons, mostly
related to balance between different character classes.

~~~
drivingmenuts
Somewhere out there is a server populated entirely by retardins ...

~~~
mahouse
Every expansion has a "best class", that's for sure. Even if you try to
balance everything, that's impossible to achieve; every class has dozens of
spells, talents, buffs... and then, some of those spells, talents and buffs
can interact with other classes (especially when in party or raid) improving
or nerfing them.

In that expansion I'm sure you're talking about, paladins are somewhat better,
and shamans are worse. That's normal, and it's not a problem when you play in
live servers, since they are making modifications to spells and everything
constantly. But when you're stuck in some version, then, you're stuck with how
classes work in that version forever. That makes the population lean towards
one class.

More information about FOTM here:
[http://wowpedia.org/Fotm](http://wowpedia.org/Fotm)

