"Abandoned Games" exemption?

[Nyghtshade]

Single player games with dead DRM servers ruled DMCA exempt"

http://www.kitguru.net/channel/generaltech/matthew-wilson/single-player-games-with-dead-drm-servers-ruled-dmca-exempt/

Although this article deals with "single player" games, could this eventually apply to CoH as well, should negotiations hit an immutable roadblock?

[steveharp]

Was just reading this article http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2015/10/u-s-govt-grants-limited-right-to-revive-games-behind-abandoned-servers/ and instantly thought of checking here, similar sort of thing.

[Surelle]

Although the first article has previously been brought up on these forums several times, it's great to know the law is still progressing forward with the second article's newer addition.   

Neither of these encompasses the double-whammy of massively multiplayer servers and IPs that are owned by their former publishers and/or developers (and in fact the second article implies that massively multiplayer games are still not covered by this new addition), but it's  still a step in the right direction.

 

[Beltor]

Also since negotiations have been going on over COX, it may not be considered abandoned. Just non functional

[Brigadine]

Although the first article has previously been brought up on these forums several times, it's great to know the law is still progressing forward with the second article's newer addition.   

Neither of these encompasses the double-whammy of massively multiplayer servers and IPs that are owned by their former publishers and/or developers (and in fact the second article implies that massively multiplayer games are still not covered by this new addition), but it's  still a step in the right direction.

 

I think MMOs will eventually find their way into this group.

[Brigadine]

Also since negotiations have been going on over COX, it may not be considered abandoned. Just non functional

they are under an NDA, that means there are no negotiations

[Mageman]

From what I read, someone COULD create a program so you could play CoX in single-player mode and MAYBE multi-player LAN, but not internet multi-player. I wonder if someone has the capability to create the Single-player mode or LAN mode. I'd be willing to "donate" for it, if needed!

That's one thing I like about Neverwinter Nights (Diamond Edition) multi-player version. Whenever you want to start a multi-player game, you have to "log into" the defunct server. When that fails, it allows you to play multi-player in LAN mode. This, however, was built into the game so when the servers shut down, you could still play multi-player games.

[Azrael]

And that's what all MMOs should have, especially cox so that at least you can enjoy the game on some level after paying a fortune in subs for it.

Azrael.

[Mageman]

I'm assuming that Paragon Studios had some form of local (either a LAN server or single-player mode) so they could do some internal testing before they added stuff to the actual TEST server. I wonder if someone has that on a disk somewhere... especially someone who did some tele-commuting. Now if that software should "somehow" show up and be down-loadable from the internet, you'd have a bunch of happy CoX players!

[Azrael]

Interesting idea.  Did Paragon have a Lan version for testing..?  Arcana..?  Codewalker..?

Could a reverse engineered single or Lan version be covered under the new exemption?

Just a shame mmo developers don't include a single or LAN version as standard practice for the inevitable closure of servers so players can still play the game instead of sitting on dead ip.

Azrael.

[Arcana]

Interesting idea.  Did Paragon have a Lan version for testing..?  Arcana..?  Codewalker..?

Configured properly and with possession of the server files you could run City on a single computer.

Could a reverse engineered single or Lan version be covered under the new exemption?

Nope.  Note the italicized text above.  It would be copyright infringement to attempt to reverse engineer those.  The LoC DMCA exception only exempts someone from criminal prosecution for violating the reverse engineering prohibitions within the DMCA.  It does not grant an exemption for copyright violation.  The presumption is that for single player games whose only problem is authentication servers that the vendor shut down, the player already possesses everything they need to play the game, legally acquired.  They only lack, in effect, a technological "permission to do so" granted by the auth servers.  The only thing the DMCA exemption would allow for City is, in effect, something like Icon.

[Mageman]

Configured properly and with possession of the server files you could run City on a single computer.

Nope.  Note the italicized text above.  It would be copyright infringement to attempt to reverse engineer those.  The LoC DMCA exception only exempts someone from criminal prosecution for violating the reverse engineering prohibitions within the DMCA.  It does not grant an exemption for copyright violation.  The presumption is that for single player games whose only problem is authentication servers that the vendor shut down, the player already possesses everything they need to play the game, legally acquired.  They only lack, in effect, a technological "permission to do so" granted by the auth servers.  The only thing the DMCA exemption would allow for City is, in effect, something like Icon.

Actually, a lot of the computer industry is built upon "reverse engineering". Now, you can't take their source code and use that as a foundation for creating your code. However, if you create something that does something similar, you are perfectly legal. Take Word Perfect - for a long time, it was the best word processing software out there. Microsoft wants a piece of that action. So they created Word. By under-cutting the price of Word Perfect, and by continuing to develop and improve their software, it is now the standard word processing software. And they got away with it since their programmers didn't have access to the source code of Word Perfect. So I think that someone COULD develop a CoX server software without infringing upon NC Soft's rights as long as they are not using NC Soft's software to do it. And the "Abandoned Games" exemption would allow us to bypass NC Soft's loader/validation program and access a LAN server instead.

[Azrael]

Actually, a lot of the computer industry is built upon "reverse engineering". Now, you can't take their source code and use that as a foundation for creating your code. However, if you create something that does something similar, you are perfectly legal. Take Word Perfect - for a long time, it was the best word processing software out there. Microsoft wants a piece of that action. So they created Word. By under-cutting the price of Word Perfect, and by continuing to develop and improve their software, it is now the standard word processing software. And they got away with it since their programmers didn't have access to the source code of Word Perfect. So I think that someone COULD develop a CoX server software without infringing upon NC Soft's rights as long as they are not using NC Soft's software to do it. And the "Abandoned Games" exemption would allow us to bypass NC Soft's loader/validation program and access a LAN server instead.

Azrael.

[Mageman]

Azrael.

And this means?

[Vee]

I took it to mean Azrael is mere days away from uploading a fully functional LAN version of CoX.

[Codewalker]

Actually, a lot of the computer industry is built upon "reverse engineering".

And the very same people who built it turned right around and started working hard to make sure nobody else could do the same thing to them, by way of things like EULAs prohibiting it and attempt to push through laws like UCITA. Depending on which state you live in, the very act of reverse engineering might run afoul of your state's laws.

Even at the federal level there are things like the DMCA's anti-circumvention provision, and some much scarier stuff that they're trying to sneak in the back door via international trade treaties.

If you're interested in copyright law and the perverse ways it's often abused to prevent competition, fair use, and reverse engineering, you should hit up eff.org to keep tabs on the current state of the war against intellectual freedom and what initiatives are currently going on.

And definitely read the actual text of the library of congress' report on the abandoned games exception.

http://copyright.gov/1201/2015/fedreg-publicinspectionFR.pdf

Starts at the bottom of page 54, it's barely over a page long and is quite easy to digest; no understanding of legalese required. Read the actual text and it will be clear that it's written in a way to specifically exclude exactly the kinds of fanciful scenarios that are being dreamed up in this thread.

Also, read the summary on page 1 and keep in mind the context of the exemption -- it only applies to the anti-circumvention clause about bypassing technical protection measures. It doesn't give free license to make copies.

[Azrael]

Thanks for link to the link to the exemptions source material, Codewalker.

Straightforward reading.

So, the reason MMOs aren't exempted are due to problems of 'trafficking?'  Not sure what that means.  But pressure should be piled on mmo makers to allow LAN or single player mode exemptions or hand over the server related code so it can be reverse engineered by the community concerned...in order to at least play the game at a local level.

This hostage to fortune as we march towards a digital future...I'm hostile to corporate overeach on ip.  I think the Coh closure is a breach of fair use.  NC Soft made their miions and now the server sits on a dusty shelf somewhere and our local client sit there under utilised bar Paragon Chat.

Azrael.

[Azrael]

Maybe us game players should be deciding what's fair rather than corporations or politicians.

Azrael.

[Mageman]

Maybe us game players should be deciding what's fair rather than corporations or politicians.

I think that there should be a statute of limitations on how long the servers can be down before they can be reverse-engineered. If they choose to "sit on their IP" then they will realize that if they sit too long that they lose their rights to block it. Right now, NC Soft has been sitting on the IP for 3 years. It's time to either sell it or lose it.

I still think that the rights to develop the game farther, and perform updates to it belong to NC Soft. I subscribed for years, bought many upgrades. I should have some rights to play a game that I've paid them over $1,000.00 over the years.

[Arcana]

Actually, a lot of the computer industry is built upon "reverse engineering". Now, you can't take their source code and use that as a foundation for creating your code. However, if you create something that does something similar, you are perfectly legal. Take Word Perfect - for a long time, it was the best word processing software out there. Microsoft wants a piece of that action. So they created Word. By under-cutting the price of Word Perfect, and by continuing to develop and improve their software, it is now the standard word processing software. And they got away with it since their programmers didn't have access to the source code of Word Perfect. So I think that someone COULD develop a CoX server software without infringing upon NC Soft's rights as long as they are not using NC Soft's software to do it. And the "Abandoned Games" exemption would allow us to bypass NC Soft's loader/validation program and access a LAN server instead.

Hypothetically speaking, you could attempt to reverse engineer the technical software engine of a server, but to completely reverse engineer the City of Heroes servers into something playable would also require reverse engineering the content of the server side game files.  You'd be 100% dead-bang guilty of copyright violation if you attempted to do that: there's no grey area there.

The problem is that the way the game functions isn't just in the code, its mostly in the data.  You can make an argument that a clean-room reverse engineered mapserver was legal.  You might still lose if that mapserver contained potentially copyright-able ideas, like the precise way gravity works, say, or had special handling for jump jets, hypothetically speaking of course.  But you'd definitely lose if you attempt to argue that recreating critter AI profiles or mission scripts was "reverse engineering technology."  You'd be recreating content protected by copyright.  Just mentioning the Crey Corporation in any file you attempt to write for a hypothetical server would be a violation of copyright content.  How do you make a functioning server that somehow has to remain in sync with the content of the client without actually mentioning that content?  That seems to be a herculean borderline impossible task.