This has been discussed by myself and others at length elsewhere and many times in the past, so my response might be slightly abbreviated.
This "campaign" breaks down to nothing more than a petition. A petition is nothing more than a declaration of a grievance or request; signatures are gathered in an effort to demonstrate broad interest. Guess what? The very existence of abandonware itself suffices as such a declaration and the "signatories" -- the visitors and enthusiasts -- number in the hundreds of thousands (if not millions). This petition is no different than ICAS or any of the other organized attempts at formalization of the abandonware "movement." In the near-decade (it'll be 10 years sometime in the late fall of next year/early spring 2008) in which I've been a member of the abandonware scene I've seen more of these things than I can count. They're absolutely, 100% useless -- and this one particularly so.
Exiled Gamers? It's a remarkably small site nearly devoid of content considering it's age (the only other article was written two years ago) with a relatively small forum. BFD. Someone over there decides that they're going to start a campaign to have abandonware titles liberated? Nice thought, but wouldn't it make more sense to first try and get into contact with people from the abandonware, emulation, and/or remake scenes? Those are the very people who best understand the law, status, and environment (ESA protection, etc) surrounding these titles. Starting a petition without organizational support of the people most involved and knowledgeable reeks of attention-grabbing and short-sightedness more than anything else. While I'm not questioning the motives of the people over there, I certainly am highly suspect of their methods and dedication.
Abandonware sceners have always been among the foremost proponents of this movement. Abandonware webmasters are extremely open about who they are and that they are knowingly breaking the law in hopes of benefiting the world at large. Sure, it's not righting a grave historical injustice such as segregation or slavery, but it's still something which a great number of people feel strongly about: cultural history. Many of the oldschool emulation guys are the same way (bleeding-edge emulation is a different story; the guys writing the emulators are playing with technology for academic reasons while the guys releasing ROMs are doing it for a variety of others unrelated to those covered here).
The ESA knows of abandonware and has jumped in to drop the hammer every so often for the past decade as well (and actually before that, but that's a historical tid-bit outside the scope of this post). They are fully well aware of the rabid interest in many of these titles and in the most significant way that is exactly why they (i.e. their members; please don't respond with pedantry) will never release them for free, nor is it likely that they will release many titles at all in fear of diluting future sales of one-offs created for mobile devices and the like. The effect that emulation and abandonware has is obvious in the release of many of the arcade compilations for the newer consoles.
Signing a petition isn't going to impress upon the ESA something it already knows, nor is it going to result in the release of these games. It is a petition pleading for a free lunch from a group of for-profit corporations. In a non-creative-works field this wouldn't even approach sane (and while the very fundamental difference of production costs does exist it is easily offset by the very real impact of sales dilution): would anyone actually take seriously a petition asking Ford to give away it's old cars for free?
The only way to affect a real change in this manner is to actually put up money. Have a drive and purchase for release into the public domain these older titles. Sure, it requires more work, money, organization, and time than signing a petition, but then again, it might actually have an impact. Hey, it worked for the Blender guys.
|