There is a rule in the EU that petitions like the ones that Stop Killing Games has been spearheading have to disclose sponsor payments. This is a reasonable stipulation to ensure that astroturf campaigns are flagged, and it’s not an issue for Stop Killing Games because it hasn’t received sponsor payments. Or has it?
No, it has not. But according to SKG’s Ross Scott, someone leveled an anonymous complaint in the EU arguing that it has received payments and is therefore guilty of a “systemic concealment of major contribution” because Scott, a games YouTuber, stated that he spent a great deal of his free time working on the petition, and if you assume that the stated time he worked on the campaign was time he otherwise would have been working, that’s the same as payment. Right?
Again, no. Obviously this is a complaint without any merit, and it’s also a complaint that specifically ignores the fact that the rules about these petitions address that exact argument. (Volunteered time does not count as payment.) So this is hardly the first hurdle that the petition has crossed, but it’s noteworthy for being a pretty blatant attempt at stopping the petition from getting over the finish line based on what amounts to nothing but a deliberate misreading of the law.
Huh, wonder who would be motivated to do that?
• Kickstarted MMORPG Dual Universe is sunsetting, but it’ll live on through player-hosted servers • MMORPG Loftia hasn’t even launched and its devs already have a theoretical end-of-life preservation plan • MMO Business Roundup: Stop Killing Games, SAG-AFTRA ratifies contract, and Hytale chatter • MMO Business Roundup: Ubisoft execs sentenced, Stop Killing Games, and AAA game dev worries • Stop Killing Games approaches its final deadline as its founder reflects on a year of efforts • Sandbox MMORPG BitCraft hopes to ‘democratize MMO development’ by going open-source • UK rebuffs game preservationists’ petition to make retroactively breaking old games unlawful • MMO Business Roundup: Embracer Q2 2024, Steam toxicity, and GOG’s game preservation program • Stop Killing Games Initiative stumps for signatures to pressure EU governments • Stop Killing Games opens worldwide petitions and shares a UK government response in update video • It’s 2024 and the ESA is still fighting game preservation, forecasting a depraved ‘online arcade’ • ‘If buying isn’t owning, piracy isn’t stealing,’ say gamers reviewbombing the remaining The Crew games • Ubisoft pulls The Crew 1 from player libraries, encourages them to ‘check the store to pursue your adventures’ • Vague Patch Notes: Game preservation is way more complicated than it seems • Stop Killing Games is a modern games preservation initiative prompted by The Crew’s cynical sunset • The Soapbox: The day my son lost his first online video game to a sunset • Choose My Adventure: What Final Fantasy XI taught me about games preservation and the ‘good old days’ • The Soapbox: Are modern games more disposable than ever? • Microsoft’s Phil Spencer advocates for game preservation through emulators • Game preservation champion The Museum of Art and Digital Entertainment has closed its doors • Lawful Neutral: What DMCA exemption victories really mean for MMO preservation • Vague Patch Notes: The complexity of classic preservation for MMOs • The Video Game Museum offers a home to Star Wars Galaxies, City of Heroes, and WildStar • US Library of Congress grants DMCA exception for preserving online games • Raph Koster on the ESA’s DMCA battle: ‘Preservation matters’ • The ESA is fighting proposed DMCA exemptions that would preserve sunsetted MMORPGs because of course it is • The US government is considering DMCA exceptions for archived online games after all
