Abandonware now legal..??

[MarvinisaLunatic 0]

In response to a filing by Brewster Kahle of The Internet Archive, Lawrence Lessig of Creative Commons, and others, the Librarian of Congress granted exemptions from copyright protection measures in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act to obsolete videogames. The exemption applies to games that require the original media or hardware as a condition of access, and it determines a format 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."

 

This means that if the game owner can't provide the users the games on the original media they cannot have copyright. In this case almost all of the games on abandoware sites will be legal to have as "free for all" which is really really good news!

 

Uh. I don't get this really. Sounds like good news though, maybe someone might understand it more.

[AndrewTS 0]

So, we can download old SNES games, etc guilt-free? Even if said game is released as a GBA port and so forth?

[Damaramu 0]

Hmmm....basically if the game isn't releaseld anymore on it's original format and that format isn't readily available then the game is I guess considered public domain.

[Slayer 0]

Whaddya mean "Abandonware"? Never heard that term before.

 

It would seem like this makes emulation of older games legal, finally

[Guest Coffey]

Any ROMs for video games systems that are no longer in development are legal. "Abandonware" just means software that has been abandoned. Like Atari, NES & SNES.

 

Now, as soon as Squaresoft gives up their rights, this will actually matter.

 

Until then, it is still a hassle to find old SNES RPG's like Chrono Trigger, Secret of Mana & the Final Fantasy games. Well, unless you know how to use mIRC of course.

 

They are all considered abandonware now. Which is a good thing for EMU players.

 

EDIT: I see a fellow "goon" browsing the post...

 

S'up Scotsman?

[The Bad Guy 0]

This DOES NOT give anyone the permission to download roms or anything of that nature that were previously illegal. What this does do is allow a person to legally break copy protection on software for obsolete systems in order to legally make a backup for his own personal use.

 

"On October 28, 2003, the Librarian of Congress, on the recommendation of the Register of Copyrights, announced the classes of works subject to the exemption from the prohibition against circumvention of technological measures that control access to copyrighted works"

 

Read the full text of the addendum here: http://www.copyright.gov/1201/

[Slayer 0]

This DOES NOT give anyone the permission to download roms or anything of that nature that were previously illegal. What this does do is allow a person to legally break copy protection on software for obsolete systems in order to legally make a backup for his own personal use.

Hate to tell you this, but people have been making "legal backups" for 6-7 years already

 

And I believe that backing-up-if-you-already-own-it was declared legal a fair while back too

[razazteca 0]

I think this applies to the old games that were on systems like Commadore 128 or Apple IIe and such. As SNES, NES, Genesis can still be found in some stores in its orginal medium.

[Damaramu 0]

I think this applies to the old games that were on systems like Commadore 128 or Apple IIe and such.  As SNES, NES, Genesis can still be found in some stores in its orginal medium.

But it is not readily available to the masses...which was an important line in there.

 

"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."

[MarvinisaLunatic 0]

Ok, thanks for clearing that up. Not really that big of a deal as it was made out to be I suppose.

[The Bad Guy 0]

This DOES NOT give anyone the permission to download roms or anything of that nature that were previously illegal. What this does do is allow a person to legally break copy protection on software for obsolete systems in order to legally make a backup for his own personal use.

Hate to tell you this, but people have been making "legal backups" for 6-7 years already

 

And I believe that backing-up-if-you-already-own-it was declared legal a fair while back too

Under the DMCA backups were not legal if you had to circumvent copy protection in order to create your backup, now it is... so long as you're doing it for something that's considered obsolete.