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By law, anticircumvention exemptions--like the one we’re requesting for preserving abandoned online video games--have to be renewed every three years. And every three years, the Copyright Office looks for evidence of how circumvention is being used in research and study in an academic setting to justify granting an exemption. So, it's important to continue to talk about the impact of having MMOs in your classroom and to support institutions like the MADE and the Strong Museum of Play that are involved in video game preservation. Increasing academic work on video games creates a virtuous circle--more research justifies a continued exemption, which in turn will make it easier for you to continue your work.

As to live streaming: unfortunately, recording live streams is potentially problematic from a copyright standpoint, as doing so involves copying the expressive elements (i.e., art, music, graphics, etc.) from the game. While a good argument could be made that recording live streams for archival purposes is fair use, this question has not been taken up by courts yet, so there is some uncertainty. However, we might have a partial answer to this question soon, as PewDiePie is currently involved in a lawsuit that touches on this issue: check out https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2017/09/heres-what-the-law-says-about-pewdiepies-fight-with-campo-santo/.

The Copyright Office considers these exemptions every three years through a public comment process. Anyone can propose an exemption and anyone can comment. Right now we are pretty far along in the process, with only the public hearings left in the process.

Late last year we submitted our proposal and comments outlining why the exemption is needed, legal, and important. The Electronic Software Association (ESA), a trade group of major video game publishers, opposed our exemption, along with a number of other entertainment business groups like the MPAA and the RIAA. We then submitted a second round of comments responding to their claims. The public hearings later this month are the last round of arguments before the Copyright Office and the Library of Congress decide on our exemption.

For this exemption, unfortunately the public comment window has closed, but the legal fight for video game preservation is always ongoing. We will begin planning for the next exemption hearing three years from now within the next year or so. The MADE and other museums doing this will continue their work to preserve video games and will always appreciate your support.

For every exemption, the Copyright Office looks to how proposed exemptions will affect educational use of copyrighted works, so the more people talking about the importance of circumvention for video game preservation, the better.

Yes, as the process involves in-depth legal research and writing, which is very time intensive. But it’s actually been a lot of fun, too. Clinics at law schools allow students to do actual legal work while in an educational setting, and this project has had professors and students working together on something we truly care about. The legal issues behind this proposed exemption--specifically 17 USC 1201 and fair use--are great for copyright nerds, but our meetings would often go off on tangents regarding old video games we miss playing. I think all of use are going to replay Grim Fandango in the next few months.

A great thing about the exemption is that it applies not just to the MADE, but to any library, museum, or archive. We hope that other museums will join the MADE so that more games are preserved and more people in more places can see them.

That would be great! Three years goes fast, particularly given that the entire rule-making process takes nearly a YEAR to complete. We look forward to your support in 2020.