Posted by mikhael 10/26/2024
Did they expect that they would allow folks to check out other software like Photoshop at the Library?
Ominous-they would really like to disallow it. But yes, of course you should. When you get a license key that's a seat. Commercial software has been making this work forever with license servers.
Like this isn't some crazy mental model. When you buy an iPhone you bought the hardware and one indefinite transferable license to run iOS. How else should software ownership work?
You can certainly access the physical game media in person, and check it out, no problem. The DMCA controversy is over remote access.
Not saying they made the wrong call here or anything, but there is clearly a gap here between old games being made available and legal options to access them, libraries tried to own a physical copy and distribute a digital copy, which was an attempt at a fair compromise, but if that isn't allowed either then I guess piracy is the only options now.
A ripped ROM image in an emulator is not equivalent to an Atari or Nintendo cartridge.
We do acknowledge that these artifacts are discontinued, and extremely valuable, but under DMCA, you literally can't have your cake and eat it too: the cake is a lie.