87% Of Classic Video Games May Disappear Soon From The US
Someone Is Thinking Of The Classic Video Games
If you guessed that the reason only 1 in 10 classic video games are likely to survive the next few years has to do with the copyright laws in the US then you deserve a pat on the back. The DMCA applies even to ancient games no longer in production and often created by companies which no longer exist. Since companies can take over copyright from the original designers, that is no protection against the law.
The Video Game History Foundation and the Software Preservation Network are hoping that they can convince the US Copyright Office to allow libraries and organizations specializing in gaming history the right to own and share classic video games. This is already lawful to do with movies, audio and print but computer games are treated completely differently. Only 13% of our gaming history has been preserved in an accessible manner in the US, and without change that number will only plummet.
The Video Game History Foundation, in partnership with the Software Preservation Network, has conducted the first ever study on the commercial availability of classic video games, and the results are bleak. 87% of classic video games released in the United States are critically endangered.
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