someone is thinking about classic video games
If you guessed that the reason why only one in ten classic video games are unlikely to survive the next few years has to do with US copyright law, you deserve a pat on the back. The DMCA also applies to old games that are no longer in production, and often games made by companies that no longer exist. Since companies can take copyright from the original designer, it is not protected by law.
The Video Game History Foundation and Software Preservation Network hope to persuade the U.S. Copyright Office to allow libraries and organizations dedicated to gaming history the right to own and share classic video games. This is already legal for movies, audio and print, but computer games are treated quite differently. Only 13% of game history is preserved in an accessible way in the United States, and that number will continue to plummet.
