About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline

81 Ohio St. L.J. 567 (2020)
Would You like to Save Your Game: Establishing a Legal Framework for Long-Term Digital Game Preservation

handle is hein.journals/ohslj81 and id is 581 raw text is: 







        Would You Like to Save Your Game?:
  Establishing a Legal Framework for Long-Term
               Digital  Game Preservation

                          WILL WHITE*

                       TABLE OF CONTENTS

L.   INTRODUCTION  ............................................................................567
II.  A BRIEF HISTORY OF DIGITAL GAMES AND  THEIR FORMATS ......572
     A. Invention ...............................................................................573
     B. Cartridges and the First Home Consoles .............................574
     C. The Move  to Optical Media ..................................................576
     D. The Rise of Digital Distribution............................................576
III. THE CHALLENGES  FACING GAME  PRESERVATION  .......................578
     A. Technical Challenges and the Need for Preservation ..........578
         1. Media Degradation .........................................................578
         2. Obsolescence ..................................................................580
     B. Legal Hurdles for Game Preservation..................................583
         1. C op yrig h t  ........................................................................5 83
         2. Source Code and Trade Secret Law ...............................586
         3. DRM  and Server-Side Authentication.............................587
         4. What of Private Preservation Efforts?............................589
     C. Current State of Game Preservation ....................................591
IV.  ESTABLISHING A FEDERALLY FUNDED  PRESERVATION BOARD.....591
     A. Film Preservation: A Case Study..........................................592
        1.  Early Film Preservation Efforts (Late 1800s-1988) ......594
        2. Establishment of the National Film Preservation Board... 596
     B. Establishing a Federally Funded Preservation Board .........598
        1. Establishing and Maintaining a Source Code Archive ....599
        2.  Establishing a Collective Stance Regaining DMCA
            Exceptions .......................................................................602
        3.  Establishing Model Agreements and Best Practices ......603
V.   CONCLUSION................................................................................604

                        I. INTRODUCTION

                              Anything not saved will be lost.

    *Managing Editor, Ohio State Law Journal; Juris Doctorate Candidate, The Ohio
State University Moritz College of Law, 2020. Special thanks to Darryl Walton for input on
trade secret law and to Nick Uguccini from The Poor Student Hobbyist for input on some
of the technical aspects of this Note (https://thepoorstudenthobbyist.com).

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Short-term subscription options include 24 hours, 48 hours, or 1 week to HeinOnline.

Contact us for annual subscription options:

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

profiles profiles most