<story><title>Videogame Publishers: No Preserving Abandoned Games Because “Hacking” Is Illegal</title><url>https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2015/04/videogame-publishers-no-preserving-abandoned-games-even-museums-and-archives</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>c3d</author><text>These companies care about their &amp;quot;property&amp;quot; more than about legality, unfortunately.&lt;p&gt;I remember a lawyer from Atari&amp;#x2F;Infogrames coming at me for having authorised some abandonware site to publish a game I had written in 1990, Alpha Waves. So I dug up the contract I had signed with them. It was a 3 years exclusive licensing and distribution contract, which Infogrames could only renew by sending me royalties every quarter.&lt;p&gt;I sent a copy of the contract, along with a letter asking for the more 15 years of royalties (after 1993). Never heard back from the lawyer after that.&lt;p&gt;Old abandonware often belongs to individuals and independent authors. And if they are like me, unlike lawyers, they are just happy that someone remembers the stuff they sweated on for years.</text></comment>
<story><title>Videogame Publishers: No Preserving Abandoned Games Because “Hacking” Is Illegal</title><url>https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2015/04/videogame-publishers-no-preserving-abandoned-games-even-museums-and-archives</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>fragsworth</author><text>I don&amp;#x27;t understand why the ESA cares at all about this. None of the games in question are making any money, and the publishers don&amp;#x27;t expect to make any money in the future on them.&lt;p&gt;What is their incentive? Maybe they want to preserve the opportunity of reviving an old IP? If that&amp;#x27;s the case, then doesn&amp;#x27;t allowing players to keep playing the abandoned games improve the visibility of those IPs, improving the value of a future revival?&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s really dumbfounding. I&amp;#x27;d like to understand the motivation here, so that it at least makes sense to me.</text></comment>