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.”

  • wavebeam@lemmy.worldEnglish
    531·
    6 days ago

    They’re right. I have been using old videos games for recreation. Too bad that they’ve decided to prevent me from paying for the privilege or at least being tracked through library usage and have instead decided it’d be better if I was just an untrackable “criminal”

    Either way, I’m enjoying these old games and living my life guilt free.

    • Bazoogle@lemmy.worldEnglish
      20·
      6 days ago

      You’d better not also be reading books for fun. By their logic, any recreational use of books from a library should also be considered illegal.

    • rottingleaf@lemmy.worldEnglish
      4·
      6 days ago

      There’s no such thing as untrackable.

      The feeling of being a completely honest and lawful citizen was really nice at some point, buying games in Steam, GOG or just bookstores, too bad it was mostly gaslighting and they were not going to be honest with us.