9 ms·

They also got an exemption for modifying of abandoned games whose activation systems are long since gone, as well as extending/clarifying the jailbreaking exemp

They also got an exemption for modifying of abandoned games whose activation systems are long since gone, as well as extending/clarifying the jailbreaking exemption.

mtgx 11y ago
That seems like great news for GOG.
- thaumasiotes 11y ago
  >> They also got an exemption for modifying of abandoned games whose activation systems are long since gone That sounds to me like it would allow you to patch a game you already owned, but not to copy and sell that game. How does it help GOG?
  - TeMPOraL 11y ago
    The only thing that comes to my mind is that now it may make commercial sense for GOG to ask publishers for rights to sell games that require activation systems / servers that are no longer maintained.
    - thaumasiotes 11y ago
      But if you're selling it with the blessing of the owner, what was stopping you from asking "oh, we also need to patch the game so it will run - I assume you don't mind?" For GOG to sell a game at all already requires that they explicitly cut a deal with the game owner. Fixing the game to run on a modern computer is a trivial part of that deal (and something they already do with their whole inventory).
      - TeMPOraL 11y ago
        You're right. Not enough coffee this morning.
      - Natanael_L 11y ago
        It could however mean that GOG doesn't need any terms for how to achieve it, allowing them to have patches created and updated for use on arbitary systems without asking for permission, once they already have permission for redistribution. So if they got permission to sell a version that can run on Windows, then they could later on patch it to make it run on Linux and other systems as well.
- dogma1138 11y ago
  GOG buys rights to distribute the original works for pennies on the dollar, the exemption EFF got is that you are allowed to reverse engineer and distribute software which can be used to run games that you own for systems that are no longer available, as well as transfer the games from their original media to modern ones in order to preserve them. It doesn't not however give people the license to sell those games commercially doesn't matter if they are "abandonware" or not.
VonGuard 11y ago
I actually worked on this part of the exemption. It was granted in two parts. First, fans may now reverse engineer and host servers for games that are no longer hosted online. Metal Gear Solid 4 is a perfect example, but there are plenty of others. This is now legal, and considered fair use. MMO's are exempted, and defined as games where the world is persistent reguardless of number of players connected (IE, is the game played in rounds, or is state reset in the world often... more than once a month, for example). It was a crude way to define the differences, but MMO's were a sticking point, so we have to come back to them later. Second, museums and archives are now permitted to circumvent copy protection in the pursuit of preservation. This means that huge stores of old games that are otherwise unavailable are now legally preservable by institutions like Stanford, The Museum of Art and Digital Entertainment, and Archive.org. Of note is the fact that the Atari ST catalog of software was preserved on pirate disks, and we've yet to find any other way to save some of those pieces of software, aside from just preserving the pirate disks. This does not mean these titles can be redistributed, only that they can be modified for the sake of preservation. Additionally, this means museums can preserve devices that circumvent copy protection, such as floppy-to-SNES devices, which we have a few of at the MADE. Modded XBoxes can now also be preserved in an institution. The bits that help museums means a great deal for preservation of digital assets as a whole. This was a lot of work to get done, so a huge thanks goes out to the EFF, Stanford, MIT, Harvard and Archive.org for all their hard work to get this done!
- jxcl 11y ago
  > This does not mean these titles can be redistributed, only that they can be modified for the sake of preservation. But once the copyright expires on the disks, they may then be redistributed?
  - VonGuard 11y ago
    Then they would enter public domain. Copyright, however, lasts a very, very long time. Longer than the history of computing.
    - gknoy 11y ago

They also got an exemption for modifying of abandoned games whose activation systems are long since gone, as well as extending/clarifying the jailbreaking exemption.

mtgx 11y ago

That seems like great news for GOG.

thaumasiotes 11y ago
>> They also got an exemption for modifying of abandoned games whose activation systems are long since gone That sounds to me like it would allow you to patch a game you already owned, but not to copy and sell that game. How does it help GOG?
- TeMPOraL 11y ago
  The only thing that comes to my mind is that now it may make commercial sense for GOG to ask publishers for rights to sell games that require activation systems / servers that are no longer maintained.
  - thaumasiotes 11y ago
    But if you're selling it with the blessing of the owner, what was stopping you from asking "oh, we also need to patch the game so it will run - I assume you don't mind?" For GOG to sell a game at all already requires that they explicitly cut a deal with the game owner. Fixing the game to run on a modern computer is a trivial part of that deal (and something they already do with their whole inventory).
    - TeMPOraL 11y ago
      You're right. Not enough coffee this morning.
    - Natanael_L 11y ago
      It could however mean that GOG doesn't need any terms for how to achieve it, allowing them to have patches created and updated for use on arbitary systems without asking for permission, once they already have permission for redistribution. So if they got permission to sell a version that can run on Windows, then they could later on patch it to make it run on Linux and other systems as well.
dogma1138 11y ago
GOG buys rights to distribute the original works for pennies on the dollar, the exemption EFF got is that you are allowed to reverse engineer and distribute software which can be used to run games that you own for systems that are no longer available, as well as transfer the games from their original media to modern ones in order to preserve them. It doesn't not however give people the license to sell those games commercially doesn't matter if they are "abandonware" or not.

VonGuard 11y ago

I actually worked on this part of the exemption. It was granted in two parts. First, fans may now reverse engineer and host servers for games that are no longer hosted online. Metal Gear Solid 4 is a perfect example, but there are plenty of others. This is now legal, and considered fair use. MMO's are exempted, and defined as games where the world is persistent reguardless of number of players connected (IE, is the game played in rounds, or is state reset in the world often... more than once a month, for example). It was a crude way to define the differences, but MMO's were a sticking point, so we have to come back to them later. Second, museums and archives are now permitted to circumvent copy protection in the pursuit of preservation. This means that huge stores of old games that are otherwise unavailable are now legally preservable by institutions like Stanford, The Museum of Art and Digital Entertainment, and Archive.org. Of note is the fact that the Atari ST catalog of software was preserved on pirate disks, and we've yet to find any other way to save some of those pieces of software, aside from just preserving the pirate disks. This does not mean these titles can be redistributed, only that they can be modified for the sake of preservation. Additionally, this means museums can preserve devices that circumvent copy protection, such as floppy-to-SNES devices, which we have a few of at the MADE. Modded XBoxes can now also be preserved in an institution. The bits that help museums means a great deal for preservation of digital assets as a whole. This was a lot of work to get done, so a huge thanks goes out to the EFF, Stanford, MIT, Harvard and Archive.org for all their hard work to get this done!

jxcl 11y ago
> This does not mean these titles can be redistributed, only that they can be modified for the sake of preservation. But once the copyright expires on the disks, they may then be redistributed?
- VonGuard 11y ago
  Then they would enter public domain. Copyright, however, lasts a very, very long time. Longer than the history of computing.
  - gknoy 11y ago