• Beej Jorgensen@lemmy.sdf.org
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    7 months ago

    Related: Internet Archive hosts zillions of abandoned games. Publishers are currently trying to sue it out of existence. They accept donations.

    • tal@lemmy.today
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      7 months ago

      I mean, I’d like games to be available, but I don’t see archive.org’s legal basis for providing it. I mean, the stuff is copyrighted. Lack of commercial availability doesn’t change that.

      Yeah, some abandonware sites might try to just fly under the radar, and some rightsholders might just not care, might not be much value there. But once you’re in a situation where a publisher is fighting a legal battle with you, you’re clearly not trying that route.

      You can argue that copyright law should be revised. Maybe copyright on video games should be shorter or something. Maybe there should be some provision that if a product isn’t offered for sale for longer than a certain period of time, copyright goes away. But I don’t think that this is the route to get that done.

      • haui@lemmy.giftedmc.com
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        7 months ago

        Legal doesnt mean correct. Slavery used to be legal.

        Copyright is a broken system that gives giant corporations the power to hold art ransom. There is no argument that holds up against art being preserved.

        So no, copyright might have had use in the past but by now it is morally sound to pirate.

      • vort3@lemmy.ml
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        7 months ago

        Lack of commercial availability doesn’t change that.

        But is there any reason why it doesn’t?

      • helenslunch@feddit.nl
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        7 months ago

        Most people on Lemmy will flat-out tell you that they don’t give a single fuck about copyright and that they have a right to anything that is reproducible. Not only that but they consider it a “moral imperative” to back up that copyrighted material and share it with others, no matter what that actual content is or who created it.

        • just another dev@lemmy.my-box.dev
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          7 months ago

          I wonder to what degree that would still apply when it’s their work (say, a photo) being used by others in any way they see fit.