[game_preservation] Deactivated Multiplayer or Authentication Servers for Games

[Kendra Albert]

Thanks so much for your responses, everyone! A bunch of great examples that I’ll be looking into more.  

Kendra
--  
Kendra Albert
Legal Intern
Electronic Frontier Foundation


On Wednesday, July 30, 2014 at 10:27 PM, game_preservation-request at igda.org wrote:

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> 1. Re: Deactivated Multiplayer or Authentication Servers for
> Games (Benj Edwards)
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> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
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> Message: 1
> Date: Wed, 30 Jul 2014 09:34:18 -0400
> From: Benj Edwards <editor at vintagecomputing.com (mailto:editor at vintagecomputing.com)>
> To: IGDA Game Preservation SIG <game_preservation at igda.org (mailto:game_preservation at igda.org)>
> Subject: Re: [game_preservation] Deactivated Multiplayer or
> Authentication Servers for Games
> Message-ID: <53D8F45A.8080508 at vintagecomputing.com (mailto:53D8F45A.8080508 at vintagecomputing.com)>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"; Format="flowed"
>  
> Kendra,
>  
> Not sure if this is completely relevant to what you're looking for  
> (since support hasn't been discontinued by the game developer), but for  
> history's sake, I'll add it to the conversation. I believe the earliest  
> online game server simulator was UOX (Ultima Offline Experiment), which  
> launched during Ultima Online's beta around 1996 or 1997. (See:  
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UOX).
>  
> Since then, UO server/shard simulators have been very popular with older  
> UO players who sought to preserve older rules of the game that have  
> since been changed in the modern, officially sanctioned servers. (See:  
> http://www.uosecondage.com)
>  
> So circumventing 1201 for reverse-engineering and running server  
> simulators has a use beyond preserving games whose online support has  
> been discontinued. As seen in this UO example, It has also allowed  
> gamers to "remix" and play MMOs in the ways they see fit. It may be a  
> stretch, but that possibly preserves fair use reinterpretations of MMO  
> games, whereas otherwise they would have been locked out.
>  
> Kind Regards,
> Benj
>  
> --  
> Freelance Journalist / Editor, Vintage Computing and Gaming
> http://www.benjedwards.com
> http://www.vintagecomputing.com
>  
>  
>  
> On 7/28/2014 7:26 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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