<story><title>New study reveals most classic video games are unavailable</title><url>https://gamehistory.org/87percent/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>sandworm101</author><text>Corollary question: How many films and TV-shows are now not legally available?&lt;p&gt;Streaming and on-demand content delivery, rather than purchased physical copies, does the same damage to other content as to games.  Per internet traditions, the porn industry is leading the way.  No doubt the copyrights to millions of porn films belong to long-defunct studios, leaving no legal access.  Today is it porn, tomorrow it will be the older Futurama episodes.&lt;p&gt;But industries want this state of affairs.  Any time spent with old content is time not purchasing the new content.  To keep the content creation industry going consumers need to forget past material.  Want to watch old Simpsons episodes?  Want to play the original Civilization?  No.  Those are dead.  Here are some new versions.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>criddell</author><text>&amp;gt; How many films and TV-sows are now not legally available?&lt;p&gt;Or if they are, they&amp;#x27;ve been changed to remove material that can&amp;#x27;t be distributed. WKRP in Cincinnati is an example of this.&lt;p&gt;From the Wikipedia page for the show:&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; WKRP was videotaped rather than filmed because at the time, music-licensing fees were lower for videotaped programs, a loophole that was intended to accommodate variety shows. Music licensing deals that were cut at the time of production covered only a limited number of years, but when the show entered syndication shortly after its 1982 cancellation, most of the original music remained intact because the licensing deals were still active. After the licenses had expired, later syndicated versions of the show did not feature the music as first broadcast, with stock production music inserted in place of the original songs to avoid paying additional royalties.</text></comment>
<story><title>New study reveals most classic video games are unavailable</title><url>https://gamehistory.org/87percent/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>sandworm101</author><text>Corollary question: How many films and TV-shows are now not legally available?&lt;p&gt;Streaming and on-demand content delivery, rather than purchased physical copies, does the same damage to other content as to games.  Per internet traditions, the porn industry is leading the way.  No doubt the copyrights to millions of porn films belong to long-defunct studios, leaving no legal access.  Today is it porn, tomorrow it will be the older Futurama episodes.&lt;p&gt;But industries want this state of affairs.  Any time spent with old content is time not purchasing the new content.  To keep the content creation industry going consumers need to forget past material.  Want to watch old Simpsons episodes?  Want to play the original Civilization?  No.  Those are dead.  Here are some new versions.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>tibbon</author><text>Books too. The vast majority of books (or paper media overall) ever printed are no longer available new. There _might_ be some electronic version, but realistically not. Library systems help fill this in, but there are so many titles are are simply difficult to obtain.</text></comment>