[game_preservation] Deactivated Multiplayer or Authentication Servers for Games

[Henry Lowood]

Oops, Kendra!
Sorry,
Henry

On 7/28/2014 5:19 PM, Henry Lowood wrote:
> Hi Kindra,
>
> I have two general thoughts about this, but first let me know if 
> either of these areas have come up yet. If not, I will do a little 
> research to find a specific private server or utility.
> The two areas are:
> 1. EA sports games - e.g., the FIFA matchmaking or Ultimate Team 
> servers for previous versions or for previous consoles.  There are PC 
> versions, and I am pretty sure there are private servers. There are 
> some interesting issues here, due to the various game currencies 
> (coins, EA points) and levels earned through XP and FCC points.  There 
> might be some overlap here with XBConnect, though again, much of the 
> trading occurs in the PC version of the game - indeed, EA has shut 
> down the PC web trading app for FIFA14, so I wonder if anyone has 
> tried to replace it.
> Some context: 
> http://ultimatefifa.com/2012/look-back-at-fifa-11-as-online-servers-to-be-shut-down/ 
> or http://www.soccergaming.com/fifa/1620/dated-fifa-servers-to-close/
> 2. I wonder if you have looked into Battlenet servers?  Blizzard, of 
> course, explicitly bans their use, and this issue has been brought to 
> the courts in the past.  For example, I have read about servers for 
> DotA, Starcraft, and such. I have not looked into this, but players 
> might want to use older maps and such without having to make them 
> compatible with the current version of the game.  I'm thinking of the 
> ICCup server, for example.  However, I am not sure that it's raison 
> d'etre is right for the exemption request.  It's Abyss server was 
> started to support competitive play of Starcraft: Brood War - which I 
> don't believe is still supported by Blizzard.  Again, I'm not current 
> on this server, just curious if it's on your radar.
>
> Henry
>
>
>
>
> On 7/28/2014 4:26 PM, Kendra Albert wrote:
>> Hi all,
>> I'm writing on behalf of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. We're in 
>> the process of determining whether to pursue a DMCA 1201 exemption 
>> request for circumventing video game authentication servers for games 
>> where support has been discontinued by the game developer. Basically, 
>> the objective of the exemption would be to prevent gamers who crack 
>> copies, reverse engineer authentication or run their own multiplayer 
>> servers for unsupported games from getting sued.
>>
>> Currently, we're in the information gathering stage, and we're 
>> looking for examples of games where the authentication or multiplayer 
>> servers were shut off, and players created alternative solutions to 
>> continue to be able to play. We have a number of MMO-related 
>> examples, so now we're slightly more interested in either single 
>> player games or games where servers played a matchmaking function.
>>
>> Some stuff that's already on our radar: Allegiance 
>> <http://www.freeallegiance.org/forums/index.php?act=home>, XBConnect 
>> <http://www.xbconnect.com>; the DWC network server emulator for DS 
>> <https://github.com/polaris-/dwc_network_server_emulator>; the 
>> Wiimmfi project for Mario Kart Wii 
>> <http://forum.wii-homebrew.com/board42-kreativitaet/mkw-server-project-english/51748-wiimmfi-patcher-for-mario-kart-wii/>; 
>> Online Consoles support for Dreamcast, Gamecube and PS2 
>> <http://onlineconsoles.com/%20>; and the various Gamespy-related 
>> shutdowns.
>>
>> Still, we would love more examples. I'm hoping that folks in this 
>> community might have some suggestions on where to look. Feel free to 
>> respond to me off-list if you prefer.
>>
>> Thanks for reading, and any leads are much appreciated,
>> Kendra
>> -- 
>> Kendra Albert
>> Legal Intern
>> Electronic Frontier Foundation
>>
>>
>>
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>
> -- 
> Henry Lowood
> Curator, History of Science & Technology Collections;
>     Film & Media Collections
> HSSG, Green Library, 557 Escondido Mall
> Stanford University Libraries, Stanford CA 94305-6004
> 650-723-4602;lowood at stanford.edu
> http://www.stanford.edu/~lowood
>
>
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-- 
Henry Lowood
Curator, History of Science & Technology Collections;
    Film & Media Collections
HSSG, Green Library, 557 Escondido Mall
Stanford University Libraries, Stanford CA 94305-6004
650-723-4602; lowood at stanford.edu
http://www.stanford.edu/~lowood

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