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SUMMARY: In this final rule, the Librarian of Congress adopts exemptions to the

provision of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (“DMCA”) that prohibits

circumvention of technological measures that control access to copyrighted works,

codified in section 1201(a)(1) of title 17 of the United States Code. As required under the

statute, the Register of Copyrights, following a public proceeding, submitted a

Recommendation concerning proposed exemptions to the Librarian of Congress. After

careful consideration, the Librarian adopts final regulations based upon the Register’s

Recommendation.

Just what is this? What does it mean? It means the work we did with the EFF, Stanford, MIT, Archive.org and many game developers, worked! We managed to convince the Librarian of Congress to change the Digital Millennium Copyright Act to allow developers to circumvent software protections when resurrecting an orphaned work. 

Here's the "Explain Like I am Five:" The good news: Individual game owners can modify their copies to keep them playable when authentication servers are shutdown. Archives, museums and libraries can modify TPMs and jailbreak consoles for the purposes of preserving games. If you want more detail, check out pages 52-56 of this link."

This means we can bring old game servers back online. It also means museums like us can now circumvent copy protection on consoles to preserve old games! We just managed to make a major change to American Copyright law, one that benefits ALL museums, and ALL game fans.

Your money and support helped us accomplish this. With your continued support, we can move on to more issues like this and keep changing things for the better!