Interesting news on how The US Copyright Office helps our hobby

[lloydcom]

So it looks like its cool to unlock obsolete mobiles, hack abandonware and make educational compliations of copyright material.

http://www.copyright.gov/1201/

Looking at this (and I'm no lawyer) it leaves the imagination open to lots of arcade preserving possibilities.

Would modding of game consoles come under this new ruling? 

[Fozzy The Bear]

Looking at this (and I'm no lawyer) it leaves the imagination open to lots of arcade preserving possibilities.

Depends on what the purpose is! the playing of games is NOT an archival persuit, and in our case it is also NOT by a Library or Archival Body. By Library the legal definition would be a recognised archival institution.

Would modding of game consoles come under this new ruling? 

Absolutely not, unless those game consoles are obsolete and no longer manufactured, AND the manufacturer refuses or is unable to supply spare or replacement parts AND is further unable or unwilling to repair any defective item AND the person conducting and holding that modification is a recognised archive or library or educational institution, using it purely and solely for the purpose of education....

SO in the case of a Playstation 1 the answer would POSSIBLY but not certainly be yes. BUT in the case of something like an X-Box or Playstation2 the answer would almost certainly be absolutely NO!!

In legal terms the pertinent phrase here is:
"the classes of works subject to the exemption from the prohibition against circumvention of technological measures that control access to copyrighted works."
It is only about the control of access! it is NOT about freedom of or exemption to Copyright in the material itself.

The Copyright owners are NOT being forced to relinquish their rights here. The only right being granted is the right to circumvention "of technological methods" for preventing copying (or more accurately, preventing viewing), when those methods of protecting the material are obsolete, and the purpose is purely archival by a recognised body.

It is NOT the Library Of Congress giving the right to copy or distribute copyright material!!

In the case of Mame ROMs the copyright in the material remains exactly the same the owners and controllers of that material still own and control its use. The fact that the hardware that the ROM software ran on is obsolete does permit the "circumvention of protection" subject to the use being purely archival..... NOT because you fancy playing a few games of PacMan.

On the other hand "Nicola Salmoria created MAME while he was a student, purely to archive and prevent the loss of the arcade game software for the education of future generations , and NOT because he fancied playing a few games of PacMan on the University computers"....... YEAH RIGHT!!! and if you believe that one, you probably also believe that the tooth fairy took your teeth and left money behind, that Santa Claus delivers presents at Christmas and that George Washington never told a lie.... ROFL 

In any case... Your "Digital Millennium Copyright Act" doesn't apply over here in the UK or Europe and neither does this.
so  

Best Regards,
Julian (Fozzy The Bear)

[Patent Doc]

Fozzy isn't there a UK equivalent to DMCA?

[leapinlew]

Lots of interpretation to be had. I wish there was some sort of ruling - so we could talk more freely about roms.

[Fozzy The Bear]

Fozzy isn't there a UK equivalent to DMCA?

Yeah.... Effectively it's covered under several different pieces of legislation. In the UK it's mostly covered under the Copyright Design and Patents Act 1985 and amendments thereto. But it gets a bit complicated and messy to interpret accurately, because we're also subject to things called "Statutory Instruments" which in most cases are passed as "European Union Legislation" rather than "UK Legislation" and quite often they can conflict with each other.

UK Law is subject to several basic problems like that, which don't plague US Law. For example, "as far as I know" in the US when an act is passed on a specific point of law it superseeds all previous acts.  This is not the case in the UK.  If an act is passed, it can be viewed as being Law.... BUT if a previous Act conflicts with it, then they can both actually be in force at the same time.  Unless the preceding act or acts in force are specifically repealed.

So you can see that it becomes even more difficult to interpret the intention of Law over here. Copyright is a particularly sticky and difficult one and open to some abuse.

When it comes "circumvention of protection", the law on that is complex and significantly conflicting. It is actually an infringement of fair usage rights in the UK and most of Europe to technologically protect software in the first place. BUT it's also a breach of European Legislation in most parts of Europe to Circumvent Protection....  It could therefore be argued that the Law says, that it is illegal to remove something that is effectively illegal in the first place! BUT because it's illegal to protect things in certain ways, it's an infringement of your fair usage rights and therefore you are permitted to circumvent it....Go Figure!! It's all a bit Catch 22. The probelm lies with the fact that until you put it in front of a Judge it's impossible to say which way it will be interpreted.

This was specifically illustrated quite publicly when the guy in Sweden who invented the code to crack the protection on movie DVD's (De-CSS) was taken into court by movie production companies, and it took a HUGE amount of time reach any decision on it at all. Even then it doesn't set a precedent and it could still be interpreted either way.

Anyway..... this is all getting WAY off Arcade Topic..... Except to say that the new ruling pointed to at the start of this doesn't help us in any way at all.

Best Regards,
Julian (Fozzy The Bear)

[leapinlew]

Anyway..... this is all getting WAY off Arcade Topic..... Except to say that the new ruling pointed to at the start of this doesn't help us in any way at all.

How could this quote not apply to us?

"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."

It seems that this could very well apply to video games in the 80's. It certainly would be debatable as to the intent of whats "reasonable" and "archival". To me it seems certain that more roms would be available from games that weren't popular, manufactured by companies no longer in business, and prototypes.

I wouldn't go so far as to say this absolutely does not apply to our hobby.

[leapinlew]

I think the sticking point might be a definition of the word library. This is from Dictionary.com.

Library-noun

1. a place set apart to contain books, periodicals, and other material for reading, viewing, listening, study, or reference, as a room, set of rooms, or building where books may be read or borrowed. 
2. a public body organizing and maintaining such an establishment. 
3. a collection of manuscripts, publications, and other materials for reading, viewing, listening, study, or reference. 
4. a collection of any materials for study and enjoyment, as films, musical recordings, or maps. 
5. a commercial establishment lending books for a fixed charge; a lending library. 
6. a series of books of similar character or alike in size, binding, etc., issued by a single publishing house. 
7. Biology. a collection of standard materials or formulations by which specimens are identified. 
8. canon1 (def. 9). 
9. Computers. a collection of software or data usually reflecting a specific theme or application.

Let the lawyers fight it out - I read this as an ok to own certain roms.

[arzoo]

I started to read this thread, but is has too many big words.