Have yo read this? http://www.gamepro.com/gamepro/domestic/games/news/31559.shtml

it only applies to the USA

Don't forget that in many cases, Europe follows the American rules with some years delay.

What is sure is that Japan has for his own market the MSX copyrights revalidated :
the MSX-USB Reader is only available in Japan ...

So, must be we happy if the official MSX Revival extends himself to Europe and America ? I begin to think negative about that. Without official MSX Revival in Europe, if Europe follows the American rules, then Europe will be a freeware MSX paradise for ever !

It's not true! That article is REALLY bad. The guy who wrote it should be fired.

The DMCA (indeed, ONLY applicable in the USA) was amended with a provision to allow cracking and reverse engineering of copyprotected software, that is unable to run on contemporary hardware. It does NOT say ANYTHING about OWNING the games.
Owning copyrighted material you did not pay for is still ILLEGAL! But, you are now legally allowed to dump a ROM, so you can play it on PC if your MSX breaks down.

Besides, it's just a note, not a law. A judge can still convict you if he feels like it.

And again, JUST in the USA.

"use the source, Luke" (c) Star Wars

Let's read the law itself:
www.copyright.gov/1201/

Here is what it says:

"On October 28, 2003, the Librarian of Congress, on the recommendation of the Register of Copyrights, announced the classes of works subject to the exemption from the prohibition against circumvention of technological measures that control access to copyrighted works. The four classes of works exempted are:

<skip>

(3) Computer programs and video games distributed in formats that have become obsolete and which require the original media or hardware as a condition of access. A format shall be considered obsolete if the machine or system necessary to render perceptible a work stored in that format is no longer manufactured or is no longer reasonably available in the commercial marketplace."

hmm yeah I wasn't completely sure the first time I read it...but in other words: you're not allowed to bypass the technological measurements taken to access software (by removing copyprotection, dumping a rom, ...), except for the four classes defined by this recommendation. This means you are allowed to dump the contents of a ROM-cartridge (if it's an obsolete format, N64-games aren't obsolete I think...), but of course the usual copyrights are still applied, so you can ONLY do this if you own the original works.

Quite a strange law, subject to many interpretations. And, what if new hardware appears capable of running 'obsolete' contents (something that is happening in Japan with the MSX Revival).. how would such cases be dealt with in the USA?

In analogy: every year some old records are released on CD, previously they were only available on vinyl. Suppose this law also applies on music, it would be legal to own a self-made CD of a record (provided you own the record itself??) until a CD comes out with the album? Or.. (continuing this analogy( is it legal to create a CD from vinyl as long as there is no re-release? Arf, I'm getting confused.

That's USA law for ya... ^^;
Confusing as hell, and the worst part is they're enforcing their views of what's 'right' on other countries as well... Europe, Japan, etc... :/

I know for music in The Netherlands it is perfectly legal to create one copy of bought music, for example copying your fav CD to tape for playing in your car and keeping the original at home in the player.

you can copy what you want at much as you like in the Netherlands.

yes, you can do that, but you're not allowed to do that.

Let's not go into the discussion again on what you can and cannot legally copy in the netherlands.

The point is, DMCA made it illegal to crack copy protections and now it's legal again to do so on old, obsolete products. This has always been legal in (most) EU countries, and will hopefully stay that way...

Although due to pressure from the USA some heavy copyright and patent laws are coming our way The USA is doing the same to Japan btw, as noted by the MRC in the 'don't rip'-thread.

if a computer such as msx will come on the market and al games are unprotected by law There will be no MSX copying was one of the reasons that msx fell off the market!

so i think it is a bad idea to folow america! if you have any idea what game developing costs these days about aprox. €10.000.000 so if everybody keeps copying in stead of buying the software market will have allot financial damage!

and if nobody buys games any more the game market will fell apart

DRVENOM:
I don't say this often, but Guyver is exacly right about this. The change is only about copy protection circumvention, not about copying itself.

I'll try to clarify it with an example. John is a retrogamer who lives in the USA and who bought an original SD Snatcher on eBay. SD Snatcher contains a copy protection on the disks. That copy protection makes it impossible to play SD Snatcher in an emulator.

Under the old DMCA it was illegal for John to remove that copy protection. So even though he owned the game, he was not allowed to play it on an emulator. He would have to buy an MSX machine as well, or he couldn't play his game.

The change to the DMCA allows John to remove the copy protection, because MSX machines are no longer being manufactured. It doesn't allow any of his friends to copy and play SD Snatcher, only John himself is allowed to do so.

Personally, I think the whole DMCA is a bad idea anyway. It gives media companies power over the way consumers are allowed to use video, music, games etc. They can use the DMCA to forbid you to skip trailers on DVDs, cheat when playing games, play CDs you legally bought on a portable MP3 player etc. All things which by themselves are not illegal, but which you cannot do without breaking the copy protection and that is illegal under the DMCA.

Quote:

DRVENOM: SD Snatcher contains a copy protection on the disks. That copy protection makes it impossible to play SD Snatcher in an emulator.

Sorry for the off-topic, but does SD Snatcher really have a copy protection? In the case it has one, which kind of copy protection?

Never dumped an original SD Snacther, and now you left me curious