[game_preservation] Status of DMCA exemption relevant to game preservation

[Devin Monnens]

Henry,

Just got back and going through old e-mails. Not sure I completely
understand this (could be jet lag...). Anyway, any significant defense of
game preservation would require some of the key points we've addressed in
the white paper:

a) That games stored on obsolete and volatile formats will not outlast their
copyright and will therefore be unavailable for public use when the
copyright expires.
b) That longevity requires circumvention of DRMA (migration, emulation,
etc).
c) That games are a culturally and socially important medium that produces
meaning (examples like Loom, Ultima, and text adventures as classic
examples) that currently are not guaranteed long-term preservation by their
copyright holders, and there is no group that is responsible for long-term
preservation of digital media, especially games.
d) Much progress has been made in recent years in game preservation as a
result of this exemption, but preservation is a long process that cannot be
done in merely 3 years and cannot be done without support from LoC.

Is that it, in a nutshell? We're mainly concerned with magnetic data at this
point because optical discs still have a longer lifespan. Once they become a
problem, then it will be easier to adopt them because we will already
(hopefully...) have a working archive of magnetic disk-based games.

-Devin

On Fri, Jan 9, 2009 at 5:49 PM, Andrew Armstrong <andrew at aarmstrong.org>wrote:


> Interesting, and if I was in the USA I'd really want to help. I hope you

> get some support for putting comments forward for this! It's a real shame

> circumventing "DRM" or "copy protection" is special for software, sigh.

> (It's like taking your cake and eating it too).

>

> Shall I post this on the blog?

>

> Andrew

>

> Henry Lowood wrote:

>

>> I am forwarding an important e-mail from our Library of Congress project

>> group from Rachel Donahue at UIUC.  Some of you probably know that the

>> original exemption discussed before was spearheaded by the Internet Archive

>> (with the point of the spear being our own Simon Carless, past chair of the

>> SIG), with some support from Stanford and others.  One of the many problems

>> with DMCA is that these exemptions only last three years (I believe), which

>> is ridiculous.  Anyway, please read Rachel's note.  Maybe there is someone

>> here who will want to take up the cause and look into what can be done in

>> the short time-frame available, if anything at all is feasible.

>>

>> Rachel's note:

>>

>> A new set of DMCA exemptions is up for approval. Unfortunately, the old

>>  exemption that we semi-relied on:

>>

>> "Computer programs and video games distributed in formats that have become

>>  obsolete and that require the original media or hardware as a condition of

>>  access, when circumvention is accomplished for the purpose of preservation

>>  or archival reproduction of published digital works by a library or

>>  archive. A format shall be considered obsolete if the machine or system

>>  necessary to render perceptible a work stored in that format is no longer

>>  manufactured or is no longer reasonably available in the commercial

>>  marketplace."

>>

>> Has not made the list of proposed classes, and I'm not sure that old

>>  exemptions are automatically considered for renewal. There's a procedure

>>  for "untimely submissions of proposed classes based on exceptional or

>>  unforeseen circumstances," but it requires a petition and a good defense

>>  of why it couldn't have been submitted eariler and why it should be

>>  considered after the deadline.

>>

>> There are a few relating to computer programs and literature that we may

>>  want to consider commenting on. The comment period closes February 2,

>>  2009. All of the proposals, and the comment submission form, are available

>>  here:

>>

>> http://www.copyright.gov/1201/

>>

>> One thing in our favor is that, "this rulemaking addresses only the

>>  prohibition on the conduct of circumventing measures that control "access"

>>  to copyrighted works," and all other activities continue to be covered by

>>  section 106/fair use. That doesn't save us from contract law, but it does

>>  make preservation actions a bit less legally grey.

>>

>> Cheers,

>> Rach

>>

>>  Rachel Donahue

>>  Graduate Assistant

>>  Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities

>>  University of Maryland, College Park

>>  College Park, MD

>>

>>

>>  _______________________________________________

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>




-- 
The sleep of Reason produces monsters.

"Until next time..."
Captain Commando
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