Earlier today, the US Copyright Office made a significant decision regarding a long-pending petition related to video game preservation. This petition, which has been in the works for three years, sought to introduce a new exemption under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) that would benefit libraries and researchers. Unfortunately, the request was denied.
The Software Preservation Network, alongside support from The Video Game History Foundation, pushed for this exemption to allow libraries to provide remote access to out-of-print video games, specifically for scholarly research purposes. They backed up their proposal with an extensive study showing a stark reality: only 13% of games released in the U.S. before 2010 remain actively in print. Remarkably, even companies in the reissue market, who one might think would be opposed, supported the proposal, arguing that it wouldn’t harm their businesses. Instead, they believed it would spark renewed interest in classic titles.
Despite this, the Entertainment Software Association stood firmly against the exemption. They argued it would undermine the market for reissuing older games, although companies like Limited Run Games and Antstream Arcade disagreed. Moreover, the association claimed that the unavailability of 87% of the games, as noted in the study, was a result of planned business strategies rather than the complex licensing issues identified by the Video Game History Foundation’s research.
Interestingly, no such restrictions are imposed on other forms of media apart from video games, despite the lack of a clear definition of what exactly constitutes a video game within this legal framework.
For those interested in diving deeper into the details of this decision, the Video Game History Foundation has released a statement, which you can read to understand their perspective on this ruling.
