[game_preservation] This is really the last snippet on the DMCA exemption - I promise

[Andrew Armstrong]

  Definitely worth thinking about the next round of exemptions to be 
made then, since some more general proposals could be put forward perhaps!

Andrew

On 04/08/2010 18:53, Henry Lowood wrote:

> It's a shame really.  The system is bonkers here in restricting the 

> exemption to use for a particular kind of research; why not define 

> research as a class of activity and allow a more general and easily 

> applicable set of uses that does not force artificial decision-making 

> on the part of libraries.  This researcher can utilize the exemption, 

> this researcher cannot, does not strike me as a full solution.  The 

> root cause is probably the application system, which practically 

> invites narrow-interest, or maybe specific is a better word, 

> applications like this.  (In fairness, there were also some fairly 

> general exemptions, too, mostly related to phone software, but those 

> were not particularly relevant to game preservation.)

>

> Henry

>

> On 8/4/2010 10:36 AM, Andrew Armstrong wrote:

>>  Yes, the Ars article addresses this security-testing exemption, but 

>> as Jerome said it perhaps doesn't apply so much to actual 

>> preservation and more permanent bypassing of such measures (and they 

>> damn well do need to be bypassed...).

>>

>> I'd say continue posting ;) I'm not an American so quite honestly I 

>> don't know much about the relevant laws, but am instead investigating 

>> the UK and EU equivalents when I find spare time (or rather, it's on 

>> my to do list ;) ). Perhaps going over the limitations and laws for 

>> our group - or if we had some lawyer able to comment on the situation 

>> - would be very cool though since legalese is so vastly hard to read.

>>

>> Andrew

>>

>> On 04/08/2010 18:17, Henry Lowood wrote:

>>> One last bit from the exemption application from U. Michigan. It 

>>> directly addresses use for preservation.

>>>

>>> "2. Availability for Use of Works for NonProfit Archival, 

>>> Preservation, and Educational Purposes

>>>

>>> After a TPM‐encumbered, PC‐accessible work is released, security 

>>> risks are likely to

>>> increase over time as new problems are found. Unfortunately, the 

>>> motivation of the

>>> publisher of the work to mitigate the risks is based primarily on 

>>> the economic return of

>>> selling more copies of the work. As soon as the cost of fixing 

>>> security flaws exceeds the

>>> potential profits of increased sales, the publisher is likely to 

>>> stop releasing fixes.

>>> Alternatively, the publisher could simply go out of business. 

>>> However, the unfixed security

>>> flaws leave consumers still using the work vulnerable to attack. 

>>> Thus, using such a work

>>> safely in the long run will require some unofficial method of 

>>> correcting security flaws.

>>> Without an exemption to the DMCA to allow security researchers to 

>>> continue to investigate

>>> works that are no longer supported by their publishers yet still 

>>> prevalent in the wild, the

>>> use of older works will become increasingly fraught with security 

>>> risks."

>>>

>>>

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>