Copyright Office Adds DMCA Exemption for 'Abandoned' Online Games

Re:Copyright Office Adds DMCA Exemption for 'Abandoned' Onli... by Forge36 on Monday October 29, 2018 @09:19AM (#18327250)

Maybe, however I see a court stuffing siding with consumers as the game as released is no longer playable. Compare with StarCraft Brood War. The ability to play on a lan connection means the game remains playable (It's also still sold). To look back further I'd point to games from Lucas Art. SCUMMVM allows to games to continue being played, while not sold.

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Re:Copyright Office Adds DMCA Exemption for 'Abandoned' Onli... by plopz on Monday October 29, 2018 @09:23AM (#18327290)

I don't think WoW is a good example, its still being sold and maintained. I don't think you can claim something is abandoned just because it was patched or updated. A much better example would be Star Wars Galaxies which was actually abandoned and the servers turned off in 2011.

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Re:Copyright Office Adds DMCA Exemption for 'Abandoned' Onli... by derefr on Monday October 29, 2018 @07:06PM (#18332466)

Different software companies have vastly different criteria for differentiating between "a patch update to the same product", "a new major version of the product requiring you to buy it again", and "an entirely new product."

For example: assume that at some point, Super Mario Maker (which is effectively solely an online service) is going to get a release for the Nintendo Switch. Like with the 3DS version, a hypothetical Switch version would probably get its own global level-uploads database, partitioned off from that of the Wii U version.

Let's say Nintendo then, eventually, shut down the servers for the Wii U version of the game, while keeping the servers for the Switch version online.

Under the "separate games" interpretation, the backend for the Wii U version of Mario Maker would probably become abandonware as soon as it was shut down. People could set up their own compatible backend to put their level data back up and keep playing SMM on their Wii U's, and it'd be entirely legal.

But under the other two interpretations, it wouldn't be legal.

And keep in mind that, even if the client was a complete re-write, the servers would likely consist of 99% the same code between the two "generations" of the game. You could say that the Wii U version's servers "became" the Switch version's servers. One "evolved into" the other, without the Wii U version's ever actually "shutting down." They just, at some point, dropped compatibility for speaking to the old Wii U client software.

Given that what you bought in this case is the client software... would the previous paragraph matter? It's entirely an implementation detail hidden to you.

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Re:Copyright Office Adds DMCA Exemption for 'Abandoned' Onli... by vbezhenar on Monday October 29, 2018 @09:48AM (#18327480)

Technically WoW 1 and WoW 8 (current version) have very little in common. But they are remaking it under WoW classic brand, so definitely not abandoned in this case.

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