US Copyright Office extends DMCA exception to preserve online games too!

[Surelle]

So how do we get NCSoft to fork over the code or permission to use the IP?

Ah, so close but yet so far.

https://massivelyop.com/2018/10/26/us-copyright-office-grants-dmca-exception-for-preserving-online-games/

[MyriVerse]

There really is no incentive for NCSoft to ever do anything. Sitting on a property and doing nothing with it is still the better option.

[Tahquitz]

Even if they did, the conditions after that are too strict to be of much help.

1.) The game is in single player mode, with no ability to connect online.
2.) The game has online capabilities but physically limited to a building such as a museum, library or archive.  You can't play unless you visit.

But yeah, no point in glossing over those two.  Legally obtaining the code with NCSoft's permission is the real deal killer. Full stop.

[slickriptide]

An "exemption" that requires one to obtain the permission of the license owner is not an exemption at all. Nothing has actually changed. NCSoft has always had the option of offering a free license to the server software and providing the source code to the server. This new clarification of the DMCA changes nothing at all.

Besides which, you still would have to be physically located at the museum in order to "study" the game.

The exemption as worded is useless as far as anyone wanting to host or play on a server.

[Tahquitz]

An "exemption" that requires one to obtain the permission of the license owner is not an exemption at all.

I'm kind of hard pressed to imagine a situation how this answers restoration efforts of abandonware at all, to be honest.  Same issue as refund seeking from the Marvel Heroes shutdown outside of Microsoft/Sony services... when lawyers from Disney answer to players "there's nobody left to sue", the same impossible situation makes this decision useless: If a company is defunct, how can you legally obtain anything or get permission in the first place?