Curmudgeon Gamer
20 September 2007
History says you're wrong
From a Joystiq post today about buying the right to unlock something that shipped on a game's disc:
Just because you bought media with data on it doesn't guarantee you the right to access it for free. Sorry.
If a feature is already on a disc, it should be accessible. Essentially 2K Sports is charging consumers more money for something they already bought, selling them a key to a door they already own.I hate to defend the game companies on this one, but this has been going on for at least a decade or more. And people liked it. Back when id Software released Quake, they'd sell you a $10 CD that had the shareware version on it, but could be registered (over the phone, I believe) to access the full version.
Just because you bought media with data on it doesn't guarantee you the right to access it for free. Sorry.
--jvm at 12:31
Comment
[ 9 ]
07 May 2007
School claims ownership of student games
And I'm not surprised. What DigiPen is doing doesn't sound much different from what I've seen in a more traditional field.
For those who have gone through the higher levels of academia, there is usually someone else claiming some sort of copyright on your work. At my university, they have copyright on my PhD thesis. I have limited rights, but they own it. The same goes for papers submitted to journals: you're generally granted right to give copies away through a personal webpage, email etc. as long as you use the final copy that appeared in the journal. It's a rigged system.
So, DigiPen students, welcome to the real world.
If you're bothered by it enough, here's what I'd suggest: Create your work as an independent project on your own hardware and with your own software. Then create a derivative work, with a clear lineage that can be demonstrated if requested, and turn that derivative work in to the school. I don't know if it'd work in court (IANAL) but it's what I'd try. (This might be an idea that Ruffin's talked about on his personal blog, but I'm not sure. I'll let him speak up on that point.)
For those who have gone through the higher levels of academia, there is usually someone else claiming some sort of copyright on your work. At my university, they have copyright on my PhD thesis. I have limited rights, but they own it. The same goes for papers submitted to journals: you're generally granted right to give copies away through a personal webpage, email etc. as long as you use the final copy that appeared in the journal. It's a rigged system.
So, DigiPen students, welcome to the real world.
If you're bothered by it enough, here's what I'd suggest: Create your work as an independent project on your own hardware and with your own software. Then create a derivative work, with a clear lineage that can be demonstrated if requested, and turn that derivative work in to the school. I don't know if it'd work in court (IANAL) but it's what I'd try. (This might be an idea that Ruffin's talked about on his personal blog, but I'm not sure. I'll let him speak up on that point.)
--jvm at 21:06
Comment
[ 8 ]
11 March 2007
Why isn't that illegal?
First, an apology: This isn't directly game related, except in the sense that a similar anti-consumer position is adopted by the companies that make and sell games.
Anyway, I'm visiting family and I noticed that my mother had bought some software from OfficeMax. On the box is a sticker saying:
Sometimes the world is just too insane.
Anyway, I'm visiting family and I noticed that my mother had bought some software from OfficeMax. On the box is a sticker saying:
Copyright Laws Prevent OfficeMax From Accepting Returns Of Software.That looks like a scare tactic to keep people from returning software. What they mean, I suspect, is that a customer's potential violation of copyright law could lose them some money. However, I'm not aware of anything in copyright law that would prevent a company from accepting a software return. If it's not true, isn't it lying to the consumer?
Defective Merchandise May Be Exchanged For The Same Item Only!
Sometimes the world is just too insane.
Labels: legal
--jvm at 21:29
Comment
[ 12 ]
21 December 2006
High-resolution glimpse of a dystopian future
The PlayStation 3 Go! Sudoku page has something interesting...and evil. It has a click-through agreement to download screenshots. Apparently I can't republish the screenshots once I download them. Well, I can put them on my own PSP and you guys could probably look at the screen while I had one of them displayed without running afoul of this agreement. Seriously, it mentions that I can only keep them on my PSP.
That alone is outrageous, but as you'll see below the actual conditions are the result of a bad double paste (or something) making them a bit more unintelligible than the usual dubious legal agreements.
Not only a click-through agreement for a screenshot, but one that doesn't even form a coherent set of conditions. Brilliant!
But wait, there's more! For the sake of research, I went ahead and agreed to Sony's terms. The pop-up window I get is basically a 404 error, a page which doesn't exist. (It doesn't work at all on Safari, at least when I tested it.) So not only did I agree to some crazy contract, but Sony didn't even live up to their half of the bargain and give me my 1920 x 1080 screenshot of Go! Sudoku for the PlayStation 3. There oughtta be a law...
For your entertainment, here's the click-through agreement in all its glory. Yes, the first paragraph is repeated. All typos, except the crazy double-paste are probably mine (since I can't copy and paste from a Flash applet). I've marked the place where things go bad with a boldfaced [sic].
That alone is outrageous, but as you'll see below the actual conditions are the result of a bad double paste (or something) making them a bit more unintelligible than the usual dubious legal agreements.
Not only a click-through agreement for a screenshot, but one that doesn't even form a coherent set of conditions. Brilliant!
But wait, there's more! For the sake of research, I went ahead and agreed to Sony's terms. The pop-up window I get is basically a 404 error, a page which doesn't exist. (It doesn't work at all on Safari, at least when I tested it.) So not only did I agree to some crazy contract, but Sony didn't even live up to their half of the bargain and give me my 1920 x 1080 screenshot of Go! Sudoku for the PlayStation 3. There oughtta be a law...
For your entertainment, here's the click-through agreement in all its glory. Yes, the first paragraph is repeated. All typos, except the crazy double-paste are probably mine (since I can't copy and paste from a Flash applet). I've marked the place where things go bad with a boldfaced [sic].
Please read the below Terms & Conditions
When finished reading and you agree to the terms therein, Click Agree and Download to start downloading this great PlayStation content. If you do not agree click Cancel to return to the previous window.
When finished reading and you agree to the terms therein, Click Agree and Download to start downloading this great PlayStation content. If you do not agree click Cancel to return to the previous window.
The following terms apply if you download content from this website. Content may include game-based graphics, images, film, music, sounds and software. You must follow the directions that appear on the site about how to download. Sony Computer Entertainment America ("SCEA") is not responsible for any loss of data or damage to your software or hardware or other loss or damage caused by failure to follow our directions. SCEA may retrieve information about a user's hardware or software for authentication and to identify the correct directories for deposit of the download. All intellectual property rights in the content available on this site belong to SCEA or its licensors. The content may be copied only for your personal use via your PSP system. The content may not be modified, published, performed or transferred to anyone else (unless otherwise stated on the site) nor used for any commercial purpose. Except to the extent permitted by applicable law, you must not disassemble, de-compile, reverse engineer or otherwise break or attempt to break [sic] the following terms apply if you download content from this website. Content may include game-based graphics, images, film, music, sounds and software. You must follow the directions that appear on the site about how to download. Sony Computer Entertainment America ("SCEA") is not responsible for any loss of data or damage to your software or hardware or other loss or damage caused by failure to follow our directions. SCEA may retrieve information about a user's hardware or software for authentication and to identify the correct directories for deposit of the download. All intellectual property rights in the content available on this site belong to SCEA or its licensors. The content may be copied only for your personal use via your PSP system. The content may not be modified, published, performed or transferred to anyone else (unless otherwise stated on the site) nor used for any commercial purpose. Except to the extent permitted by applicable law, you must not disassemble, de-compile, reverse engineer or otherwise break or attempt to break the law.
--jvm at 06:44
Comment
[ 3 ]
11 December 2006
Installable PSP games
The UMD drive in the Sony PSP was a huge mistake. The format is essentially dead for movies. Having a mechanical drive in the PSP eats up the battery and probably makes the whole system more prone to failure. Memory Stick PRO Duos can now be had in 4 gigabyte sizes, over twice the capacity of a UMD, for reasonable prices. And today we find out that Sony has cards in development that have eight times that capacity, or almost 18 times the size of dual-layer UMD.
I've been told that shipping games on Memory Stick would be cost prohibitive. So perhaps Sony could continue to ship games on UMD but offer an option to have the game install itself on a large enough Memory Stick. I'd gladly plunk down for the largest Memory Stick I could find if I could install several of my games on the card, get increased battery life, and faster load times.
This weekend I bought Every Extend Extra (it was on sale for $20, a deal I couldn't pass up) and the disc access is painful. The game doesn't involve tremendous amounts of data like, say, Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories might but it does slow down a bit when the UMD has stopped spinning while playing a level and then has to be spun back up to speed. EEE would probably fit on a smaller Memory Stick and thereby avoid the grinding disc access that currently breaks up what is an otherwise slick presentation.
No doubt unscrupulous people would find some way to exploit the system and play games they don't legally own. I can't help that. But with a system to install games on Memory Stick, Sony might be able to pave the way to a revision of the hardware that eliminates the UMD drive and moves to fixed media altogether.
I've been told that shipping games on Memory Stick would be cost prohibitive. So perhaps Sony could continue to ship games on UMD but offer an option to have the game install itself on a large enough Memory Stick. I'd gladly plunk down for the largest Memory Stick I could find if I could install several of my games on the card, get increased battery life, and faster load times.
This weekend I bought Every Extend Extra (it was on sale for $20, a deal I couldn't pass up) and the disc access is painful. The game doesn't involve tremendous amounts of data like, say, Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories might but it does slow down a bit when the UMD has stopped spinning while playing a level and then has to be spun back up to speed. EEE would probably fit on a smaller Memory Stick and thereby avoid the grinding disc access that currently breaks up what is an otherwise slick presentation.
No doubt unscrupulous people would find some way to exploit the system and play games they don't legally own. I can't help that. But with a system to install games on Memory Stick, Sony might be able to pave the way to a revision of the hardware that eliminates the UMD drive and moves to fixed media altogether.
--jvm at 19:29
Comment
[ 8 ]
05 December 2006
Well, thanks a lot, Mr. Jvm.
Sure, I'm about a month and a half late to this party, but today I learned that "Lik-Sang.com [is] Out of Business due to Multiple Sony Lawsuits".
Me, I blame this, regardless of any potential anachronistic-ness, on Matt's revelation that many pirated Game Boy carts were coming from the Asian market, on the number of pirated carts he himself has ordered and linked to said market, and his past affinity for ordering from lik-sang. We all know that these strange, fringe folk pirating Game Boy carts tend to congregate around grey market dealers like lik-sang, and one might also notice jvm's recent pimps of play-asia.com as a sign that he's continuing his ways. He may have moved on, but those of us who loved and rejoiced in the magic cyberspace that was lik-sang have not.
I'm upset that this likely means I'll never get my long coveted Game Boy Advance [audioless!] player/adapter for the N64, which means one less console for me to play those wonderfully unlicensed, perfect blackmarket copies of gba games we all know, have purchased from EB thinking they are the real thing, and love.
Thanks, Mr. Jvm. Might as well kiss play-asia goodbye too, I suppose.
Me, I blame this, regardless of any potential anachronistic-ness, on Matt's revelation that many pirated Game Boy carts were coming from the Asian market, on the number of pirated carts he himself has ordered and linked to said market, and his past affinity for ordering from lik-sang. We all know that these strange, fringe folk pirating Game Boy carts tend to congregate around grey market dealers like lik-sang, and one might also notice jvm's recent pimps of play-asia.com as a sign that he's continuing his ways. He may have moved on, but those of us who loved and rejoiced in the magic cyberspace that was lik-sang have not.
I'm upset that this likely means I'll never get my long coveted Game Boy Advance [audioless!] player/adapter for the N64, which means one less console for me to play those wonderfully unlicensed, perfect blackmarket copies of gba games we all know, have purchased from EB thinking they are the real thing, and love.
Thanks, Mr. Jvm. Might as well kiss play-asia goodbye too, I suppose.
Labels: legal
--ruffin at 12:39
Comment
[ 4 ]
03 December 2006
How Nintendo is solving its piracy problem
Given the rampant online piracy of Nintendo's games, should be no surprise that they have constructed significant roadblocks to prevent emulation of their last three systems: the GameCube, the Nintendo DS, and the Wii. While the GameCube used a proprietary medium, the Nintendo DS and Wii have much more effective deterrents: their unique interfaces.
The transition from the Atari 2600 joystick to the PlayStation analog pad (two sticks, D-pad, left and right shoulder triggers) not only focused the industry on a fairly standard interface but ensured that the previous generation's controls were mostly a subset of the next generation's. That progression also permitted emulation of earlier systems on newer systems with a minimum of fuss. If you want to emulate a SNES on an Xbox, the button mapping is natural. The Game Boy Advance could emulate NES games and the Nintendo DS can emulate the SNES, no mucking with buttons required. For years those same PlayStation-style pads have been available for home computers as well.
That process makes emulation both possible and attractive.
While emulation of games with nonstandard interfaces has been done before -- we have commercial emulations of the arcade games Paperboy and Star Wars: The Arcade Game and Marble Madness and 720 degrees -- the compromise made to fit a different controller is always unsatisfying.
And so, with the introduction of the Nintendo DS touchscreen and the Wii's spatial controller we see that Nintendo has made emulation piracy far less attractive, albeit still possible. Will we see people trading Wii games over the internet in 10 years as they do now with SNES ROMs? Perhaps, but it will probably mean that you will have to have a Wii controller -- or a knock off controller. Anything less will be unsatisfying. And in 10 years you can probably bet that Nintendo will offer a relatively cheap and easy alternative on their next system -- which will work with the Wii controller out-of-the-box and offer Wii games for download for a few dollars. With appropriately priced hardware and downloads, Nintendo will keep people in the Nintendo store and off the ROM sites.
The same could easily be true for the Nintendo DS. If the DS were the beginning of another cycle of incremental improvements roughly paralleling the progression from Game Boy to Game Boy Color to Game Boy Advance then we may not see another radical evolution of the Nintendo handheld line for another 15 years. Despite Nintendo's claims to the contrary, the DS appears to be its future for the handheld, not the Game Boy.
There will always be the hardcore folks who refuse to pay. They're a sad fact of life. Someone will hack drivers to make the Wii controller work on an emulator running under Windows or even on a GNU/Linux-enabled console. And certainly you can emulate a Nintendo DS with a mouse. I bet it isn't nearly as entertaining to play Elite Beat Agents by clicking a mouse, but that won't stop some people from doing it anyway.
However as appears to be happening with music, most people will choose to buy their games instead of pirate them if there are enough blocks to casual emulation piracy and a reasonably priced legitimate alternative. That's Nintendo's goal, and I think they've made the right moves to attain it.
The transition from the Atari 2600 joystick to the PlayStation analog pad (two sticks, D-pad, left and right shoulder triggers) not only focused the industry on a fairly standard interface but ensured that the previous generation's controls were mostly a subset of the next generation's. That progression also permitted emulation of earlier systems on newer systems with a minimum of fuss. If you want to emulate a SNES on an Xbox, the button mapping is natural. The Game Boy Advance could emulate NES games and the Nintendo DS can emulate the SNES, no mucking with buttons required. For years those same PlayStation-style pads have been available for home computers as well.
That process makes emulation both possible and attractive.
While emulation of games with nonstandard interfaces has been done before -- we have commercial emulations of the arcade games Paperboy and Star Wars: The Arcade Game and Marble Madness and 720 degrees -- the compromise made to fit a different controller is always unsatisfying.
And so, with the introduction of the Nintendo DS touchscreen and the Wii's spatial controller we see that Nintendo has made emulation piracy far less attractive, albeit still possible. Will we see people trading Wii games over the internet in 10 years as they do now with SNES ROMs? Perhaps, but it will probably mean that you will have to have a Wii controller -- or a knock off controller. Anything less will be unsatisfying. And in 10 years you can probably bet that Nintendo will offer a relatively cheap and easy alternative on their next system -- which will work with the Wii controller out-of-the-box and offer Wii games for download for a few dollars. With appropriately priced hardware and downloads, Nintendo will keep people in the Nintendo store and off the ROM sites.
The same could easily be true for the Nintendo DS. If the DS were the beginning of another cycle of incremental improvements roughly paralleling the progression from Game Boy to Game Boy Color to Game Boy Advance then we may not see another radical evolution of the Nintendo handheld line for another 15 years. Despite Nintendo's claims to the contrary, the DS appears to be its future for the handheld, not the Game Boy.
There will always be the hardcore folks who refuse to pay. They're a sad fact of life. Someone will hack drivers to make the Wii controller work on an emulator running under Windows or even on a GNU/Linux-enabled console. And certainly you can emulate a Nintendo DS with a mouse. I bet it isn't nearly as entertaining to play Elite Beat Agents by clicking a mouse, but that won't stop some people from doing it anyway.
However as appears to be happening with music, most people will choose to buy their games instead of pirate them if there are enough blocks to casual emulation piracy and a reasonably priced legitimate alternative. That's Nintendo's goal, and I think they've made the right moves to attain it.
--jvm at 23:37
Comment
[ 8 ]
02 December 2006
Virtual Console Stupidity
Go Nintendo reports on the games that will be made available at launch over Wii Virtual Console in different markets:
France, Denmark, Finland, Great Britain, Germany, Italy, Greece, Portugal, and Spain - Donkey Kong, Mario Bros., Wario's Woods, Bomberman 93, Super Star Soldier
Norway, Belgium, Austria, Ireland, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Norway, and Sweden - Donkey Kong, Mario Bros., Wario's Woods, Bomberman 93, Super Star Soldier, The Legend of Zelda, Dungeon Explorer, Victory Run
That's right, France and Britain will be getting five games on launch, while Luxemborg and Ireland will be getting eight -- including two, Dungeon Explorer and Victory Run, that are not yet available in the US, Nintendo's largest non-Japanese market. But that's nothing compared to the final sentence in the post:
Australia and New Zealand will not see TurboGrafx games, seeing that that platform never made it to those countries.
Nintendo has basically proven here that, to their mind, Virtual Console exists for nostalgia purposes only. Why would they not want to release TurboGrafx games in markets that never saw the system? Because, despite the fact that it costs almost nothing other than rights fees (which cannot be very high) and bandwidth to offer them, they will not, simply because they didn't get it the first time around. Each Virtual Console sale, especially at those prices, is almost pure profit for the licensor and Nintendo, to not chase it is ludicrous. Yeah, they gotta ESRB 'em, sure, so get it done and get them released!
Even worse, indeed incredibly bad, is that this also implies that the many Japanese-only games released over Virtual Console will remain Japanese-only.
To say that Nintendo is dropping the ball here seems like an understatement. If Nintendo were the only download gaming place in town then this kind of arrogance, which is fairly typical for the company it must be said (and this is coming from a long-time Nintendo supporter, the only console I got last generation was a Gamecube), might restrict their sales a bit it would not directly harm them.
But they are certainly not the only download console gaming guys around. X-box Live Arcade has been at it for months now, and has some very nice, original, games for it, and will only be getting more. And they have some of the greatest classic arcade games ever seen; whoever has been picking the out for Microsoft seems to know his stuff. Nintendo has some games that are equal, maybe even a little better, in quality (do not overestimate that "better" thing: objectively measured, Zelda may be awesome, but so is Robotron, just in a different way), but their greatest ally is volume, and so far that's fallen woefully short.
They may claim that the Wii is not trying to compete with the other new-gen consoles, and there is some truth to that, but they are competing directly in the downloadable games space, and so far Nintendo's only real advantages there are simplicity of use and the games themselves. We've heard murmurings about original Virtual Console games but for all we know those could go the way of the 64DD, discarded on a whim at any time in the future. We hear about all these games they COULD release, but COULD != WILL, and their statement that they're going to release a "greatest hits" selection is, frankly, idiotic when two of their US VC launch games are Pinball and Soccer. PINBALL AND F--KING SOCCER! If they're determined to launch early NES classics as well as later ones then where the hell is Ice Hockey?!
Meanwhile in Japan they already have Super Mario Bros! Even though the system launched a couple of weeks later in Japan than the US, at launch they have more games available, and knowing Nintendo, will probably continue to have more throughout the Wii's lifespan.
Nintendo! You cannot afford to do things like this any more! You've left your lunch right there on the table, and Microsoft is heading over with a hungry look in its eye!
And their appetite is boundless.
France, Denmark, Finland, Great Britain, Germany, Italy, Greece, Portugal, and Spain - Donkey Kong, Mario Bros., Wario's Woods, Bomberman 93, Super Star Soldier
Norway, Belgium, Austria, Ireland, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Norway, and Sweden - Donkey Kong, Mario Bros., Wario's Woods, Bomberman 93, Super Star Soldier, The Legend of Zelda, Dungeon Explorer, Victory Run
That's right, France and Britain will be getting five games on launch, while Luxemborg and Ireland will be getting eight -- including two, Dungeon Explorer and Victory Run, that are not yet available in the US, Nintendo's largest non-Japanese market. But that's nothing compared to the final sentence in the post:
Australia and New Zealand will not see TurboGrafx games, seeing that that platform never made it to those countries.
Nintendo has basically proven here that, to their mind, Virtual Console exists for nostalgia purposes only. Why would they not want to release TurboGrafx games in markets that never saw the system? Because, despite the fact that it costs almost nothing other than rights fees (which cannot be very high) and bandwidth to offer them, they will not, simply because they didn't get it the first time around. Each Virtual Console sale, especially at those prices, is almost pure profit for the licensor and Nintendo, to not chase it is ludicrous. Yeah, they gotta ESRB 'em, sure, so get it done and get them released!
Even worse, indeed incredibly bad, is that this also implies that the many Japanese-only games released over Virtual Console will remain Japanese-only.
To say that Nintendo is dropping the ball here seems like an understatement. If Nintendo were the only download gaming place in town then this kind of arrogance, which is fairly typical for the company it must be said (and this is coming from a long-time Nintendo supporter, the only console I got last generation was a Gamecube), might restrict their sales a bit it would not directly harm them.
But they are certainly not the only download console gaming guys around. X-box Live Arcade has been at it for months now, and has some very nice, original, games for it, and will only be getting more. And they have some of the greatest classic arcade games ever seen; whoever has been picking the out for Microsoft seems to know his stuff. Nintendo has some games that are equal, maybe even a little better, in quality (do not overestimate that "better" thing: objectively measured, Zelda may be awesome, but so is Robotron, just in a different way), but their greatest ally is volume, and so far that's fallen woefully short.
They may claim that the Wii is not trying to compete with the other new-gen consoles, and there is some truth to that, but they are competing directly in the downloadable games space, and so far Nintendo's only real advantages there are simplicity of use and the games themselves. We've heard murmurings about original Virtual Console games but for all we know those could go the way of the 64DD, discarded on a whim at any time in the future. We hear about all these games they COULD release, but COULD != WILL, and their statement that they're going to release a "greatest hits" selection is, frankly, idiotic when two of their US VC launch games are Pinball and Soccer. PINBALL AND F--KING SOCCER! If they're determined to launch early NES classics as well as later ones then where the hell is Ice Hockey?!
Meanwhile in Japan they already have Super Mario Bros! Even though the system launched a couple of weeks later in Japan than the US, at launch they have more games available, and knowing Nintendo, will probably continue to have more throughout the Wii's lifespan.
Nintendo! You cannot afford to do things like this any more! You've left your lunch right there on the table, and Microsoft is heading over with a hungry look in its eye!
And their appetite is boundless.
--JohnH at 18:53
Comment
[ 16 ]
24 November 2006
Abandonware *still* not legal, people
"Abandonware" is not legal. Please stop it. Some people may circumvent copy prevention schemes on software they own in order to access that software. That is all. It mentions libraries and archives, not end users, which seems a rather important point. If a library owns a copy of Defender of the Crown by Cinemaware and can't get the fast loader (V-Max!) to work with their Commodore 1541 drive, it now appears that on Monday they could legally crack the program so it doesn't use the fast loader. An archive can't find its hardware dongle to access some old, obsolete program? That archive may now have a right to work around that hardware without running afoul of the anticircumvention part of the Digital Millenium Copyright Act. And any such activity which is now permitted is only permitted between 27 November 2006 and 27 October 2009, i.e. for a limited time.
That is all.
Again, that's what it appears to say -- I'd consult an attorney to make sure you are actually affected by this ruling. It isn't clear to me that this even applies to a normal software owner like me since I'm not a library or archive. I'm certainly not going to advise anyone that their situation has changed.
You still may not distribute copies of someone else's software, cracked or not. There is no such thing as "make sure the games really are abandonware". You shouldn't be winking and saying "rarely do any abandonware cases go to court". If you're not an attorney, you probably shouldn't be giving out that kind of advice.
So just fricking stop it.
Here is what you need to read, excerpted from the DMCA page on the Library of Congress website, my emphasis added:
That is all.
Again, that's what it appears to say -- I'd consult an attorney to make sure you are actually affected by this ruling. It isn't clear to me that this even applies to a normal software owner like me since I'm not a library or archive. I'm certainly not going to advise anyone that their situation has changed.
You still may not distribute copies of someone else's software, cracked or not. There is no such thing as "make sure the games really are abandonware". You shouldn't be winking and saying "rarely do any abandonware cases go to court". If you're not an attorney, you probably shouldn't be giving out that kind of advice.
So just fricking stop it.
Here is what you need to read, excerpted from the DMCA page on the Library of Congress website, my emphasis added:
Persons making noninfringing uses of the following six classes of works will not be subject to the prohibition against circumventing access controls (17 U.S.C. ยง 1201(a)(1)) during the next three years.
[...]2. 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.
3. Computer programs protected by dongles that prevent access due to malfunction or damage and which are obsolete. A dongle shall be considered obsolete if it is no longer manufactured or if a replacement or repair is no longer reasonably available in the commercial marketplace.
[...]
These exemptions will go into effect upon publication in the Federal Register on November 27, 2006 and will remain in effect through October 27, 2009.
Am I a lawyer? Heck no. So feel free to correct me in the comments, if you see something I missed. (This is the point at which Bob normally comes out and slaps me around. I like it.)
Labels: legal
--jvm at 08:23
Comment
[ 16 ]
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