Related: Internet Archive hosts zillions of abandoned games. Publishers are currently trying to sue it out of existence. They accept donations.
Thx for the heads-up
👍
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.
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.
Lack of commercial availability doesn’t change that.
But is there any reason why it doesn’t?
You can argue that copyright law should be revised.
It already has been, there is a ruling that allows an exemption to copyright law for the specific use of preservation by libraries and museums.
Maybe they could do more about it but what’s already there is way way better than nothing.
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.
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.
I highly recommend Accursed Farms (this guy’s) YouTube channel. His content is very well made and he seems like a good person (I’ve been watching for a lot of years).
Obligatorily: YouTube is crap statement, used piped instead.
RIP “Ace of Spades: Battle Builder”. I can’t play this game because Jagex shut down the servers. Can’t even play LAN or against bots.
That game was so great
There is a mod or another game built to play ace of spades again online, can’t remember what it was but I played it last year
Thanks for getting the Word out! Now it finally will pay off, that i got the crew while Ubisoft was giving away games for free a long time ago!
Vive la Resistance! 🇫🇷
Just gonna drop this here, since Ross has blown up suddenly. It’s important this masterpiece never fall into obscurity.
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6PNZBb6b9LvDWpI-5CPYUxG1Rnm-vr9V&si=dLKBo06GqI30I3QP
Wow I had no idea this guy made these videos… Haven’t thought about them in years
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
https://piped.video/watch?v=w70Xc9CStoE&t=0s
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I’m open-source; check me out at GitHub.
I’ll necropost because it’s funny. A tuber does a thing, suddenly it’s the largest ever :D I think we’ve been preserving abandonware for a few decades
Man, I came across his channel some years ago watching his Game Dungeon about Baldies. This was so hilarious, I rewatched it a couple of times. Great channel and thanks for posting!
Thanks for getting the Word out! Now it finally will pay off, that i got the crew while Ubisoft was giving away games for free a long time ago!
Vive la Resistance! 🇫🇷
