ESA Rebukes EFF's Request To Exempt Abandoned Games From Some DMCA Rules

[wraggster]

It's 2015 and the EFF is still submitting requests to alter or exempt certain applications of the draconian DMCA (https://www.eff.org/cases/2015-dmca-rulemaking). One such request concerns abandoned games that utilized or required online servers for matchmaking or play (https://www.eff.org/files/2015/02/09/2014-07_eff_gaming_exemption_comment.pdf) (PDF warning) and the attempts taken to archive those games. A given examples is Madden '09, which had its servers shut down a mere one and a half years after release. Another is Gamespy and the EA & Nintendo titles that were not migrated to other servers. I'm sure everyone can come up with a once cherished game that required online play that is now abandoned and lost to the ages. While the EFF is asking for exemptions for museums and archivists, the ESA appears to take the stance that it's hacking and all hacking is bad (https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2015/04/videogame-publishers-no-preserving-abandoned-games-even-museums-and-archives). In prior comments (http://copyright.gov/1201/2015/comments-032715/class%2023/Joint_Creators_and_Copyright_Owners_Class23_1201_2 014.pdf) (PDF warning), the ESA has called reverse engineering a proprietary game protocol "a classic wolf in sheep's clothing" as if allowing this evil hacking will loose Sodom & Gomorrah upon the industry. Fellow gamers, these years now that feel like the golden age of online gaming will be the dark ages of games as historians of the future try to recreate what online play was like now for many titles.
http://games.slashdot.org/story/15/04/09/1238240/esa-rebukes-effs-request-to-exempt-abandoned-games-from-some-dmca-rules