[...] Recent EntriesFriendsArchiveUser Infoeschatologist.net Rulemaking on Anticircumvention« previous entry | next entry »Nov. 23rd, 2006 | 01:02 amRulemaking on Exemptions from Prohibition on Circumvention of Technological Measures that Control Access to Copyrighted Works [via Raph Koster, Library of Congress likes retro games]: Audiovisual works included in the educational library of a college or university’s film or media studies department, when circumvention is accomplished for the purpose of making compilations of portions of those works for educational use in the classroom by media studies or film professors.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.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.Literary works distributed in ebook format when all existing ebook editions of the work (including digital text editions made available by authorized entities) contain access controls that prevent the enabling either of the book’s read-aloud function or of screen readers that render the text into a specialized format.Computer programs in the form of firmware that enable wireless telephone handsets to connect to a wireless telephone communication network, when circumvention is accomplished for the sole purpose of lawfully connecting to a wireless telephone communication network.Sound recordings, and audiovisual works associated with those sound recordings, distributed in compact disc format and protected by technological protection measures that control access to lawfully purchased works and create or exploit security flaws or vulnerabilities that compromise the security of personal computers, when circumvention is accomplished solely for the purpose of good faith testing, investigating, or correcting such security flaws or vulnerabilities. These exemptions go into effect next Monday, November 27, 2006.Tags: dmca, drm, games [...]

simonc wrote:

The exemption is only good for libraries and archives – it doesn’t apply to your regular man on the street, I’m afraid.

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.

Emphasis added. The language is poor enough to be interpreted as “where circumvention is accomplished for either preservation or archival reproduction”. The intent may have been “where circumvention is accomplished for the purpose of preservation, or archival reproduction, of published digital works by a library or archive.” But that’s not what is written.

Brask Mumei wrote:

Er… I thought that was about circumventing the DMCA, *not* violating the copyright.

This new DMCA provision seems to alter copyright law by providing yet another exception to the rule.

‘There was already an exemption for making backup copies for yourself (e.g., pulling a ROM to run an emulator, if you own the original ROM). This is why all the ROM sites say “we won’t tell you where the ROMs you need are — you have to own the original.”’

Actually, there’s no such thing, as far as I’m aware – I don’t believe that is currently legal, though some people have tried to argue as such.

[...] Thanks to Raph Koster for pointing out something I hadn’t spotted – that the U.S. Copyright Office has again ruled on DMCA exemptions, and that classic games are getting an exemption once again. [...]

As for PCs, if the game has a floppy disk-in-drive copy protection, it would seem now legitimate to hack it to eliminate that protection as floppy disks are largely obsolete. I wonder what it implies about the CD-in-drive games, however.

And they want to charge me $5 per NES game with my brand new Wii. Never thought I’d say this, but…

THANKS GOVERNMENT!

[...] Nice post and welcome. You are right that we have the right to play our old game we payed for. Raph Koster, the original designer of SWG even says so and so does the Library of Congress: "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." You can read it here http://www.raphkoster.com/2006/11/22/library-of-congress-likes-retro-games/ Akor [...]

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