So if Steam shuts down, can I circumvent the Steam DRM that no longer works and download my purchased games from another source? That is what I would do anyway, but I wonder how that would play out legally.
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You can use crack patches to remove the drm from any games you downloaded from steam should the service disappear:
"when the copyright owner or its authorized representative has ceased to provide access to an external computer server necessary to facilitate an authentication process to enable gameplay.", In such instances, a new exemption allows for "copying and modification of the computer program to restore access to the game for personal, local gameplay on a personal computer or video game console."
But no idea if you're allowed to download the games elsewhere. Same goes for online multiplayer games like MMOs. But games with single player that you already have a copy of are definitely covered.
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I think this was addressed by Gabe in the past. If I recall correctly, in the event that Steam needs to cease operation users would be given the option to download all their games before the final shutdown.
No idea how people with 10000+ games would be able to get that much storage space, but I would say downloading a copy from a 3rd party sources after that window of time would technically still be considered piracy (on the same level that downloading some old abadonware game would be piracy)
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People with 10000+ games tend to have play time on around 1% of that number. That wouldn't stop them whining about not being able to access their library though, despite most likely having zero actual incline to play those untouched games, ever.
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I wouldn't be worried about people not being able to find space for all their games. I think the bigger issue would be Steam's servers instantly crashing or slowing to a crawl as millions of people all frantically try to download their entire game library. Steam would have to implement some kind of queue system to only allow a certain number of downloads at a time, maybe they already do this, I don't know.
I don't know if it would even be possible for Steam to allow all of it's users to download all their games. I have no idea how much data it would be, but it would probably be measured in some massive number like zettabytes.
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If steam announces they shut down I will most likely just buy a couple of 4TB HDD's for the purpose to have all my games on them.
They are quite cheap nowadays. The only problem would be to download all the games before time runs out.
Even with my current 40 MBps speed, it will take quite a while to get everything down.
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so, how many games with broken DRM in the first place?
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From the article:
"This doesn't mean it's now permissible to circumvent DRM in order to access other copyrighted works. In other words, this isn't the US government calling out DRM as evil and giving consumers a legal pass to do whatever they want with protected content. "
BUT ALSO (as stated in the OP):
"There's also a section on videogames that covers instances "when the copyright owner or its authorized representative has ceased to provide access to an external computer server necessary to facilitate an authentication process to enable gameplay.""
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Too bad some single player games have drm that can't be bypassed because the content is only on their servers. When Hitman 2016 and Hitman 2 servers go down, all online functions will be lost, including mission ratings, the mastery system, challenges and unlocks. No way to bypass that. Yay for streaming services supposedly being the future of gaming :(
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Filed: 10/25/2018 8:45 am; Publication Date: 10/26/2018
Someone was eager to see it done :)
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It's actually even better.
Video games in the form of computer programs embodied in physical or downloaded formats that have been lawfully acquired as complete games, that do not require access to an external computer server for gameplay, and that are no longer reasonably available in the commercial marketplace
Translation: You can crack abandonware for preservation purposes.
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Oh nice! Updated the first post with the added info :)
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I'm a little late to the party on this one, but it turns out just a month ago congress passed new exceptions to the DMCA allowing DRM to be circumvented if it breaks your legally obtained games. See here:
https://www.pcgamer.com/us-congress-deems-it-legal-to-circumvent-drm-to-repair-electronic-devices/
https://www.copyright.gov/title37/201/37cfr201-40.html
In summary this applies to games where the DRM server no longer works/exists, as well as older 'abandonware' games which are "no longer reasonably available in the commercial marketplace". I'm quite happy about this news, so I thought I'd share it for anyone else who hasn't heard. :)
Also, here's a giveaway.
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