[game_preservation] Online DRM

[Andrew Armstrong]

This wasn't brought up much in the roundtable checking my notes, but I 
think just everyone knew it was a problem - an actual example was 
horrible offline DRM in a few games (of the diskette and tape era) doing 
strange copy protection things - one was from an actual developer of 9 
copy protections on one of his games, where the cracked version only 
removed the 8 - the 9th just corrupted the game and didn't crash it, and 
so that version became the "standard" that was available to play, and is 
hardly therefore a good one to preserve!

Notes will be up next week which are more detailed on this bit, but 
little online DRM was raised in any case.

I think we do need to get some information up on the difficulties of DRM 
- in all it's forms - for preservation. A few good detailed articles 
would help when we need to point to authority on it. A major point is 
ownership, the right to copy (which copyright includes in many 
countries, or hasn't been tested in in many more) EULA's, and of course 
companies "promising" to remove the DRM if they go bust or stop the 
service, which we have several very good examples of this not happening.

The pay-to-play service model is worrying for me, I prefer ownership, so 
we will have to get someone then just me to look at it since I'm a 
little biased into the "I can play it without an internet connection 
thank you" realm.

Andrew

Henry Lowood wrote:

> Andreas,

>

> You are right, this is a huge looming issue, and it is already causing 

> problems.   What we actually discuss at the roundtable will depend on 

> who is there, but I will put this topic in my pocket and pull it out 

> if there is a good opportunity.  

>

> Henry

>

> Andreas Lange wrote:

>> Dear all,

>> one news about the GDC, which catched my attention says that online 

>> DRM systems e.g. for Games for Windows Live or Steam are one of the 

>> big topics in the industry. I wonder how much the industry is aware 

>> of what this would mean for the preservation. I expect, that it will 

>> not make things easier. This is an important issue, which should be 

>> raised, if not already done - I am looking forward to the report of 

>> "our" attendees at the GDC,

>> Andreas

>>

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> -- 

> Henry Lowood

> Curator for History of Science & Technology Collections;

>      Film & Media Collections

> HRG, Green Library

> 557 Escondido Mall, Stanford University Libraries

> Stanford CA 94305-6004 USA

> http://www.stanford.edu/~lowood

> lowood at stanford.edu; 650-723-4602

>   

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