The Electronic Software Association, the main lobbying group for video games in the United States, has shown no interest in supporting video game preservation efforts. On Thursday, ESA lawyers told a U.S. Copyright Office rulemaking hearing that the group's members do not support exceptions in U.S. copyright law that support preservation efforts.
ESA lawyer Steve England told the panel that the ESA remains adamantly opposed to allowing libraries to preserve old video games. Video game preservationists have been lobbying for exceptions to copyright law that would allow academic or educational access to video games. ESA's current concern is that private citizens will access these games for their personal collections or to share with others, in violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
England said 'no combination of restrictions exists' [the ESA] Supports providing remote access. ” (via GameDeveloper.com.) His remarks were made during Thursday's hearing. Video game protection activist Phil Salvador posted a Twitch stream of the hearing on Bluesky the same day.
Salvador is a librarian at the Video Game History Foundation. The foundation is a non-profit organization he founded in 2017 to document the history of the medium and preserve its works, especially old and rare titles. The California-based VGHF Library maintains a digital library containing printed materials documenting the history of video games and their culture.
Salvador said during the hearing that public libraries lack the interest and resources to maintain and host this type of digital collection. He estimates fewer than 10 people currently do so.
This was in response to suggestions from the UK that university libraries might be appropriate repositories for storing and accessing games, with an application process for researchers to come and study games. It is. However, England said that even if these materials were stored in a physical location and access was controlled on-site, there would still be concerns for ESA members.
Kendra Albert of Harvard University's Cyber Law Clinic criticized the ESA's stance, saying the agency is not making an honest effort to meet conservationists halfway toward worthy research goals.
In a statement released Friday, the clinic insisted that “there were no significant rebuttals to the opposition's comments.”
“The clinic is sufficient to ensure that the use of saved video games is not infringed, and based on statements from two major re-release companies, the market for retro games is negatively impacted by types of games.'' “It is likely that the preservation institution will provide access,” the statement said.
Research shows that game saves are rarely supported
In July 2023, Salvador and VGHF published research showing that 87 percent of video games released in the United States before 2010 have not been preserved in any meaningful way.
“Since 2015, U.S. libraries, museums, and archives have petitioned the Copyright Office for new exemptions to preserve games and make them available to researchers,” the study states. . “Each time, gaming industry lobbyists have opposed these new exemptions.”
Approximately every three years, the U.S. Copyright Office considers new rules and exemptions from current law, with public comments and hearings to guide the discussion. If changes are planned, they will likely be announced in the fall.
