The Video Game History Foundation is “not done fighting” after US Copyright Office refuses exemption to aid preservation

Current circumstances force researchers “to explore extra-legal methods” say the VGHF

Back in April, I wrote about a hearing that took place between representatives Video Game History Foundation, the Rhizome project, and the Software Preservation Network, in which they argued the case for a DMCA exemption that would allow researchers to remotely access out-of-print games in libraries and archives. Representatives from the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) and the AACS were in opposition, with ESA legal representative Steve Englund at one point fretting about some sort of hellish "online arcade that (he’d) been warning about for the last several proceedings".

Last Friday, as per a statement released by the VGHF and spotted by PC Gamer, the US Copyright Office officially denied the exemption.

*Checks our editorial policy on commenting on such matters*. Tossers! Ah well - the VGHF aren’t too fazed, at least.

"While we are disappointed by the Copyright Office’s decision, we have no regrets about going through this process," write the VGHF. "Over the last three years, working on the petition has helped us generate important research, notably our Survey of the Video Game Reissue Market in the United States report, which proved that around 87 percent of video games released in the United States before 2010 remain out of print."

"The game industry’s absolutist position—which the ESA’s own members have declined to go on the record to support—forces researchers to explore extra-legal methods to access the vast majority of out-of-print video games that are otherwise unavailable," they continue. "We’re not done fighting here. We will continue our advocacy for greater access and legal allowances for video game preservation and working with members of the game industry to increase internal awareness around these issues."

"We might be coming full circle back to piracy being something that we need to be literate in, in order to be able to access the things that we love," The VGHF’s Frank Cifaldi told me in January. "Digital streaming scooped everything up and we all got content with it. We're already seeing things wiped from existence before our eyes."

Back in May, Warren Spector wrote about how he’d "literally dumpster dived" to help with game preservation.