Towards preserving Digital Culture: An interview with Amy Thomas
Towards Preserving Digital Culture series is a contribution to the Software Heritage initiative supported by INRIA and UNESCO. The primary objective of this series is to underscore the pivotal role of software heritage preservation in mitigating the loss of digital cultural heritage. Through these interviews, we present diverse perspectives to foster discussions on challenges related to technological progress, obsolescence, legal limitations, and preservation complexities, contributing to addressing current field needs.
Hello Amy! Thanks for joining us! Could you tell us more about yourself?
I’m a Lecturer in Intellectual Property and Information Law at the University of Glasgow and CREATe centre. Copyright law is my specialty, and I’m especially interested in how copyright regulates video games, eSports and all kinds of interactive entertainment. Issues around preservation are omnipresent in these areas. I also have a personal interest in this too and do like to game in my free time!
According to you, what are the main benefits of software preservation?
It’s important to preserve games so that future generations have access to this art form and can understand the process of creative and technical development that goes into making them. This applies to both the game itself and the mode of playing it, e.g., on the original hardware. As a researcher, I think access to games for research is indispensable for understanding their cultural significance and influence on our society. I grew up in the wake of the 1990s moral panic over games and violence which stands out as an example of a historically important moment we may want to study in future. To do this, we need access to the games that were discussed at this time, and to be able to play them in the way they were intended to be played.
What are the challenges and/or obstacles?
There are many reasons that it’s logistically difficult to preserve video games — in general, games don’t lend themselves well to being preserved, both because of the hardware-software breakdown and the time-labour costs for this very technical process. But my position is that the law shouldn’t be yet another barrier for preservation efforts. Nor should there be legal repercussions for the good faith volunteer efforts that have helped preserve games to date. Especially where games are out of print, or no longer being actively supported by the rightsholder, there are good policy reasons to support a change to our legal framework to enable meaningful preservation and access to these titles.
What would be your advice on collectively moving forward on software preservation?
If we want to remove the legal barriers to game preservation, we need to gather evidence that demonstrates how our current policies are ineffective, or even actively harmful. This involves real world data gathering from people at each level of the supply chain: from users who want to access games, through to archivists and technicians that are charged with preserving them. We also need to be sympathetic to the perspective of people who create games and to understand that often, game preservation could be important to them too, but is a problem that they can’t solve themselves. As there is a commercial market for older, out-of-print games, we need to be clear on the difference between markets for re-releases and re-masters, versus markets for the original game file. To my mind, these are very distinct markets in purpose and form, and to acknowledge this would create balance between all parties in the supply chain. All in all, it’s collectively in our interest to have a legal framework that supports a vibrant and diverse culture; video games are part of that culture, and we should be enabled to preserve it.
Could you recommend us with a blog, article or publication that you particularly appreciated?
The Survey of the Video Game Reissue Market in the United States (2023) was very influential for me in sparking an interest in video game preservation. It has an interesting methodology and stark, powerful findings that evidence how serious this issue is (e.g., that 87% of classic games in the US are out of print) — after reading this, there is no doubt we are living through a real time loss of culture.
Thank you, Amy, for participating in this interview series!
