Edit2: As of third of July we’ve achieved the minimum amount of 1 million signatures! But organizers recommend as many signatures as possible to cover for possible invalidations (1.5M would be ideal). If you have not yet signed, you can still help!
Onto the post.
Yarr citizens of the high seas! The Stop Killing Games movement is still ongoing and we’ve recently had a second wind. It’s within reach!
We’re all lovers of media in here, and games currently have no safeguard that guarantees that they won’t be locked down long after being released and abandoned. If crackers help us, they can still be played long into the future, but many times there isn’t such a possibility, specially in multiplayer games.
This initiative seeks to change that by mainly:
- Disallowing planned obsolesce in paid video games. (Ex: By disallowing phone-home based DRM after the game reaches end of life. Like in Ubisoft’s The Crew)
- Ensuring that paid multiplayer games can still be reasonably played long into the future. (Ex: By releasing relevant server hosting software)
If you didn’t sign yet, there is only one month left. Tell your friends too.
Do you live in the EU?
- You can sign it here: https://eci.ec.europa.eu/045/public/#/screen/home
Do you live in the UK?
- You can also sign a different one here: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/702074/
Do you live elsewhere or would like to know more?
Disclaimer: Reminder post, sort of relevant since piracy movements have much to benefit from this initiative.
Have a fine day!
On the flipside I don’t think just boycott works, not with the way IP law is structured. If you want true archival of games that has to be put into law, otherwise eventually somebody just buys the Remnants of Ubisoft and figures all those long life SSDs aren’t worth it to keep around anymore.
I think if you wanted to do this you have to just get politically involved like in general. You can’t single issue this, there’s too many hurdles. From gerontocratic parliaments over to IP laws and a general populaces ignorance as to how important keeping history and archives is this was never going to fly. Very much a true love is possible only in the next world - for new people. It is too late forus. wreak havoc on the middle class thing.
These people aren’t involved though. They just signed a petition. That’s near zero effort. The majority of these people think that petition passes = new law. That’s not what the petition does. That’s a main issue I have with all of this (in addition to the other points). The EU committees have previously stated its on the member nations to legislate this, not the EU itself. After the committee on petitions looks at this, the most they can do is refer it to another committee for fact-finding. This is where it has always died for the reason just mentioned. The question I’d have for the people who sign this is: if the EU has stated it is not within their power to legislate this, why do you think after 3-4 asks that they suddenly would now have the power to legislate?