Dan Chisarick wrote:
Good article. Grey areas I'd have to wonder about:
- I'm a non-technical user who wants to backup my Commodore 64 copy of M.U.L.E. According to this I have a legal right to do so. However, I'm technically incapable of doing so on my own. This law says I have a right, but is it legal for (Joe Hacker) to publish information on how to accomplish this (so that I can make my legal backup)?
No. It is still unfortunately illegal to *publish* hacking info. But you are free to investigate it yourself (as long as you don't publish :)
- Nearly all schemes to defeat copy protection require some degree of reverse engineering. For some sufficiently integrated copy protection schemes, just who decides how much I can reverse engineer the code in order to accomplish this?
Actually, this is the best part: It is now an official exemption. This means you are exempt from the wrath of the DMCA if you are caught reverse-engineering something you own because no known software or hardware currently exist to use the product in its original form. What this means to the layman game player is that you are free to investigate copying, modifying, or otherwise reverse-engineering your games if you no longer own a computer that can play them.
- Say that someone decided to release a fully-functional Atari 2600 reissue console to the marketplace (or even re-issue the games themselves). If we previously had the right to archive 2600 titles, would re-issuance then revoke the right we just had? (Probably).
Actually, no. You still/always have the right to archive any titles you have bought. It is irrelevant if those titles are re-issued; you still own first-issue items, and have the right to archive those items.
Like most legal issues, I'd suspect whoever has more money is right.
Amen. -- Jim Leonard ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) http://www.oldskool.org/ Want to help an ambitious games project? http://www.mobygames.com/ Or check out some trippy MindCandy at http://www.mindcandydvd.com/
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