As video games has have become part of our cultural heritage, museums have started to present them as art artifacts Berlin even has its Computerspielemuseum (Video game museum). Video games exhibitions have even reached established museums. However, the preserving preservation of video games involves copying its code, which is prohibited by copyright laws. Therefore, the conservation of video games poses a problem for museums that want to save video games from deccay.

Unfortunately, video games can not (nadruk) be preserved as in the same way that books, paintings or sculptures can, because their magnetic drivers fail quickly. The data carriers that hold the information that ultimately form the game demagnetize after ten years of existence. When that happens, all data is gone, even if just a few bits of information are lost. 

The only way to preserve video games from decay is to create so-called emulators that digitalize the hardware on which the games are played. The hardware is reconstructed as software and can then be played on other devices. For example, Nintendo games can be played on a personal computer with an emulator. Emulators could solve the problem of preserving video games.

As emulation involves the copying of code, it is prohibited under European and U.S copyright law. These copyright regimes currently do not foresee in a preservation exception for public institutions, such as museums. Therefore, there is no legal way for museums to save video games from decay.

Nintendo does not encourage emulation. According to the game developing company, emulators promote piracy. "The assumption that the games involved are vintage or nostalgia games is incorrect. Nintendo is famous for bringing back to life its popular characters for its newer systems, for example, Mario and Donkey Kong have enjoyed their adventures on all Nintendo platforms, going from coin-op machines to our latest hardware platforms. As a copyright owner, and creator of such famous characters, only Nintendo has the right to benefit from such valuable assets." they state on their website. For Nintendo, it doesn’t matter that some of these games might not be available in stores anymore: "The current availability of a game in stores is irrelevant as to its copyright status."

Lately, museum conductors and the gaming community  are beginning to establish lobbying initiatives to defend the emulation of video games, seeing it as the only way to preserve this part of our cultural heritage. Hopefully, the lobbyists and the representatives of the electronics industry will find a way to overcome the problems museums face when trying to preserve video games.

Read more about video games and preservation on FutureOfCopyright.com:

• Dutch developers Vlambeer fuel discussion on game cloning
• Google Books reaches deal with French publisher La Martinière

Source: TheNextWeb.com

By: Marjolein van der Heide