Finally, it’s time for us to talk about the topic of this very blog – digital preservation! And boy oh boy, do I have a lot to talk about with you, so just strap yourself down and, in the words of a great videogame character, stay a while and listen. Let me ask you a question: What do you think is the biggest hurdle behind the digital preservation of online casinos? Maybe you think that it’s a pointless endeavour, because why should we preserve an online casino that’s out of business when there’s already so many of them that are kicking around? And yeah, I suppose that’s kind of a fair point, even if I disagree with it (I should probably make a post explaining why later). Or maybe you think that it would take too much work to preserve every single casino of note, including a ton of money for stuff like serves and webspace. That’s also a very valid point. But, believe it or not, the biggest issue isn’t related to the lack of resources or motivation. It’s entirely legal.
Enter the DMCA – the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, implemented in 1996. Today, whenever we argue that something is “under copyright”, we usually mean that it’s protected by the DMCA, and that protection means that it can’t be replicated, sold, distributed or altered in any way without the explicit permission of the copyright holder. That’s why, if you make a YouTube video featuring Johnny Cash’s song “Hurt”, that video might be taken down and you could receive a DMCA notice, since you used the song without permission. However, since 20th Century Fox reached an agreement with the people holding the rights to the song, they’re free to use it in their trailer for “Logan”. The DMCA isn’t a bad idea in theory, since it protects copyright holders from having their work stolen and profited off of (without it, I could literally just download copies of movies, burn them on discs and sell them on the street, and no one would be able to stop me). In theory, DMCA is supposed to wear off after a certain period of time, allowing a work to enter the public domain and be accessible to everyone. Works that are in the public domain (such as, say, the novel “Dracula”) are exempt from copyright, and technically, to echo the example above, I can print out copies of “Dracula” and sell them on the street, and nobody could stop me. The problem is that copyright takes a veeeery long time to wear off, and it’s all because of a very particular mouse.
You see, Mickey Mouse debuted in 1928, and under the copyright law at the time, he had copyright protection for 56 years before entering the public domain, which was set to happen in 1984. Problem is, Disney refused to have their mascot character leave copyright and be free to everyone, so in the 70s, they pushed to have the copyright protection period extended. And then they did it again. And again. Every single time Mickey Mouse’s copyright protection was on the verge of expiration, the copyright laws magically became stricter. Today, with corporations having major control over the American congress, it’s pretty much safe to assume that copyrighted works will never be allowed to enter the public domain. I mean, at this point Mickey Mouse’s copyright is set to expire in only seven years – do you really believe Disney will allow that, now that they’re at their most powerful yet thanks to “Star Wars” and their Marvel movies?
Of course, this all just applies to American copyright law, so in theory, British copyright law should be different… Right? Well, not exactly, no. While the DMCA is purely an American law, it exists under other names in many other countries, including the UK. In Britain, it’s known as the UKCS, and it states that any work may enter public domain after 50 years. But, surprise surprise, when amazingly popular British TV show “Doctor Who” hit its 50th anniversary in 2013, the law was changed so that now movies and TV shows can enter public domain 70 years after the death of the last person involved in them, and since the director of the first episodes of “Doctor Who” is still alive at the age of 78, we’re not getting those episodes until at least 2087. And let me assure you, if “Doctor Who” is even still relevant at this point, the BBC will surely find a way to extend their copyright even further. Online casinos, such as the ones listed at http://www.bestonlinecasinos.org.uk/, are also subject to the same rule – no distribution or alteration until at least 50 years have passed, and who knows what will happen in the mid-2050s to prevent that from happening. Obviously, in order to be preserved, online casinos need to be altered to work outside of the servers to which they were originally linked, and even then they need to be duplicated for use on a different domain, so either way copying them – even simply with the interest of preservation – is a major copyright violation.
There might be a little bit of light at the end of the tunnel, but it’s a dim one. Classic, abandoned videogames are pretty much in the same boat as online casinos, meaning that they couldn’t be preserved legally before their copyright expired. However, thanks to a few recent alterations to the DMCA, copyright law now does not apply to altering videogames and distributing them as long as that work is done to benefit a videogame archival institution. So basically, I can take an old game from a long-closed developer, crack it open to remove its copyright protection and to ensure that it’s playable, and then upload it to a videogame archive database for players to enjoy without facing any consequences whatsoever. It’s a wonderful system, and one that I hope gets implemented in the UK as well – it would, at the very least, ensure that online casinos that are no longer active will not be forgotten.
