Gaming and the Digital Millenium Copyright Act
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Can we talk for a minute about the Digital Millenium Copyright Act?
I'm sure most people here know what the DMCA is but just in case:
**The DMCA is designed to prevent unauthorized copies, or backups, of copyrighted digital works, including movies, music and books. How does the DMCA work? Many digital works are encrypted, or locked, so you cannot make copies; this is the concept of digital rights management, or DRM. So, under the DMCA, it is illegal for you to circumvent technological codes and encryptions that control reproduction of copyright protected work. The DMCA also makes it illegal to make or distribute technology, devices or services intended to circumvent measures that control access to copyright protected work. That means it is illegal for you to break through DRM locks or create the tools to do so to make your copies, even for personal use, such as backup copies. (Source: http://info.legalzoom.com/dmca-backup-copyrighted-content-22827.html)
As an example, you can't buy a DVD protected by DRM and circumvent the DRM to create a backup of the movie you legally purchased. However, if the DVD you own has no DRM it's legal to copy it. This website details some non-DRM content. http://archive.org/details/movies. Now, with all of this said I actually don't mind it in regards to movies, TV shows and Books because they are readily available. I also mostly don't mind it video game wise because most games are readily available through platforms like Steam.
Where I really care is when I want to play old games legally. The issue is, when a copyright lasts 70 years you are at the mercy of a legal distributor to release the content to you. So when I want to play a rare game that you can't find and there is no company out there producing it, I have no legal options. It's only getting harder to find old games and when you can find them they are sometimes ridiculously overpriced. I saw a copy of Boogerman for the genesis on ebay the other day for $400. It seems insane to me to own the rights to something, not want to put it out into the world but prevent people from playing it. This just agitates me.
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Who owns it?
In the case of your Boogerman game, what is your desire? To rip the ROM and play it on an emulator? -
To be able to play it at all. Why enforce it if you aren't attempting to monetize it? There are games you can't find anymore.
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@wirestyle22 said in Gaming and the Digital Millenium Copyright Act:
To be able to play it at all. Why enforce it if you aren't attempting to monetize it? There are games you can't find anymore.
Enforce what?
While the law is still valid for companies that go out of business, whomever still holds the patient/copyright on the thing still has rights, normally no one bothers if you crack it because the expense often isn't worth the reward. i.e. if the copyright for Boogerman is held by the ex-owner of the company that made it and you did rip the ROM, then it's very likely they would never come after you.
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Perhaps you're implying that copyright owners should make FOSS anything they no longer care about? But why would they do that? That takes effort on their part, effort that at minimum requires time, and most of us agree that time is not free. So I can see no reason why they would bother.
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I wish they would just release IP they weren't interested in pursuing but it's not likely to happen. They spent money developing the character(s) and the game. Maybe in the future they will do something with it type situation. Look at MODOK. That character was so weird and obscure but he made it into some new shows and a marvel vs capcom video game. If you asked the creators of MODOK if they ever saw that happening they would tell you no way.
It's not like I can just wait until the copyright expires.
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People like me who want to do everything legally have no recourse other than just not playing it, which sucks.
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@wirestyle22 said in Gaming and the Digital Millenium Copyright Act:
People like me who want to do everything legally have no recourse other than just not playing it, which sucks.
well, you do have another - as you said you can buy it for $400.
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@wirestyle22 said in Gaming and the Digital Millenium Copyright Act:
To be able to play it at all. Why enforce it if you aren't attempting to monetize it? There are games you can't find anymore.
Well if you are George Lucas it's because he actually hates his customers and uses his money to keep games that they want out of their hands.
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@Dashrender said in Gaming and the Digital Millenium Copyright Act:
@wirestyle22 said in Gaming and the Digital Millenium Copyright Act:
People like me who want to do everything legally have no recourse other than just not playing it, which sucks.
well, you do have another - as you said you can buy it for $400.
Yup. You can also find the copyright holder and buy the rights yourself.
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@Dashrender said in Gaming and the Digital Millenium Copyright Act:
@wirestyle22 said in Gaming and the Digital Millenium Copyright Act:
People like me who want to do everything legally have no recourse other than just not playing it, which sucks.
well, you do have another - as you said you can buy it for $400.
Yeah, if you can find the game you're looking for.
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@scottalanmiller said in Gaming and the Digital Millenium Copyright Act:
@Dashrender said in Gaming and the Digital Millenium Copyright Act:
@wirestyle22 said in Gaming and the Digital Millenium Copyright Act:
People like me who want to do everything legally have no recourse other than just not playing it, which sucks.
well, you do have another - as you said you can buy it for $400.
Yup. You can also find the copyright holder and buy the rights yourself.
It's just not reasonable
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@Dashrender said in Gaming and the Digital Millenium Copyright Act:
Perhaps you're implying that copyright owners should make FOSS anything they no longer care about? But why would they do that? That takes effort on their part, effort that at minimum requires time, and most of us agree that time is not free. So I can see no reason why they would bother.
That's why passionate people sometimes go and buy the old games. That's how Day of the Tentacle saw the light of day again. Disney bought out Lucas. Then Double Fine bought that one thing from Disney.
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@wirestyle22 said in Gaming and the Digital Millenium Copyright Act:
@scottalanmiller said in Gaming and the Digital Millenium Copyright Act:
@Dashrender said in Gaming and the Digital Millenium Copyright Act:
@wirestyle22 said in Gaming and the Digital Millenium Copyright Act:
People like me who want to do everything legally have no recourse other than just not playing it, which sucks.
well, you do have another - as you said you can buy it for $400.
Yup. You can also find the copyright holder and buy the rights yourself.
It's just not reasonable
Why not?
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I've considered going after some IP that I wanted access to before. It's not a crazy thing to do.
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@scottalanmiller said in Gaming and the Digital Millenium Copyright Act:
@wirestyle22 said in Gaming and the Digital Millenium Copyright Act:
@scottalanmiller said in Gaming and the Digital Millenium Copyright Act:
@Dashrender said in Gaming and the Digital Millenium Copyright Act:
@wirestyle22 said in Gaming and the Digital Millenium Copyright Act:
People like me who want to do everything legally have no recourse other than just not playing it, which sucks.
well, you do have another - as you said you can buy it for $400.
Yup. You can also find the copyright holder and buy the rights yourself.
It's just not reasonable
Why not?
You think attempting to purchase the IP is a reasonable thing to do to play the games you want to play? I'll give you an example. On the Playstation 1 Capcom came out with Street Fighter EX Plus Alpha. All of the non-capcom characters are owned by amiga. The game itself is owned by capcom. You think the process of getting this is not only fiscally viable but also achievable by an average person? Legal costs and everything? Just to play a game? Wat
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@wirestyle22 said in Gaming and the Digital Millenium Copyright Act:
@scottalanmiller said in Gaming and the Digital Millenium Copyright Act:
@wirestyle22 said in Gaming and the Digital Millenium Copyright Act:
@scottalanmiller said in Gaming and the Digital Millenium Copyright Act:
@Dashrender said in Gaming and the Digital Millenium Copyright Act:
@wirestyle22 said in Gaming and the Digital Millenium Copyright Act:
People like me who want to do everything legally have no recourse other than just not playing it, which sucks.
well, you do have another - as you said you can buy it for $400.
Yup. You can also find the copyright holder and buy the rights yourself.
It's just not reasonable
Why not?
You think attempting to purchase the IP is a reasonable thing to do to play the games you want to play? I'll give you an example. On the Playstation 1 Capcom came out with Street Fighter EX Plus Alpha. All of the non-capcom characters are owned by amiga. The game itself is owned by capcom. You think the process of getting this is not only fiscally viable but also achievable by an average person? Legal costs and everything? Just to play a game? Wat
If getting the IP is hard at all, you just explained why it's not made free by someone. So you just answered you original question. It's not a reasonable request that you are making.
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Also SF is current IP, not abandoned IP. So you jumped the shark from your original discussion. Get back to Boogerman. How hard might that be?
People do this all the time. It does work when people want to sell.
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@scottalanmiller said in Gaming and the Digital Millenium Copyright Act:
Also SF is current IP, not abandoned IP. So you jumped the shark from your original discussion. Get back to Boogerman. How hard might that be?
People do this all the time. It does work when people want to sell.
Don't get caught up on boogerman. I was just commenting on the price of a game from my childhood as an example.
The legal fees alone of this process make it unachievable by an every day person.
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@wirestyle22 said in Gaming and the Digital Millenium Copyright Act:
The legal fees alone of this process make it unachievable by an every day person.
What legal fees? There aren't necessarily any. It's a straight purchase.
