What? There's a big difference between "legal to sell as a compiled binary" and "legal to release as source".

If server code is released such that people can run private servers after the official servers are shut down, then legally the people running the servers should be the ones liable for illegal activity that happens on them.

I could imagine third-party companies springing up whose entire business model is JUST providing unofficial servers for discontinued games and moderating them. Maybe a subscription service that provides access to servers for several different online service games.

Of course, it would be more likely that it would be just a player who hosts a server for themselves and their friends and doesn't attempt to be profitable. That would be fine too.

Because you can buy other people's code for cheaper than developing it yourself, as long as you use it within the restrictions of the license you paid for.

I understood that from a IP and trademark stand point. It could be hard to retain your copyright or trademark if you are no longer controlling a product

Just saying, if my highschool programming classes are any indicator, there's a ton of released binaries out there that use copywritten and otherwise plaigarized code

If that's their argument, then the counterargument is simple: preserve the game another way. If hosting servers is dangerous, put the server code into the client and allow multiplayer w/ P2P tech, as had been done since the 90s (e.g. StarCraft).

What they seem to be doing is reframing the problem as requiring users to host servers, and arguing the various legal issues related to that. SKG just needs to clarify that there are multiple options here, and since devs know about the law at the start (SKG isn't retroactive), studios can plan ahead.

It's just a disingenuous argument trying to reframe the problem into cyber security and IP contexts, while neither has been an issue for other games in the past.

They retain copyright based on existing law, and trademark is irrelevant since it's defended in courts, not EULAs.

This is why code should be written to be library-agnostic. Or, rather, libraries should be written to a particular open source interface standard to make library agnosticism easier.

I could imagine third-party companies springing up whose entire business model is JUST providing unofficial servers for discontinued games and moderating them

That kind of already exists, you can buy hosting for Minecraft and other games. AFAIK, moderation isn't a part of it, but many private groups exist that run public servers and manage their own moderation. It exists already, and that should absolutely be brought up as a bill is being considered.

Imo, that should be the primary role of the government

Exactly, and that also includes online games like Minecraft. Nobody is going to sue Microsoft because of what someone said or did in a private Minecraft server, though they might if it's a Microsoft hosted one.

Towards the bees!

paying your debts. The game breaks as it cannot speculate anymore on your debt

That's easy have some self control and only buy games that respect you

So, a shitton of game developers just got laid off from Microsoft, another in a string of "restructuring" nonsense that's been rampant in the industry.

That's a lot of people with gaming expertise who could be put to work helping companies transition their games to single player experiences or at least making them accessible to customers after support stops. If the EU ends up pushing this forward, there's a decent business opportunity in there.

Honestly I don't see it as the developers losing anything. They still make the same products, they still sell the same products, and when they're done with those products forever they have to give hosting capability up to the public.

What are they afraid of? That we won't play their new games if they can't shut the old games down?

And that's one of the big reasons companies don't even think about open-sourcing their code.

Can the EvE online method be applied to dissimilar games like e.g. fps games?

We have had that exact model for decades. Hosting companies use to and probably still offer rack space for arena shooters. The main company managed the master server, which was just a listing of IP addresses, but there were only ever a few official game servers with defaults loaded.

They did not, they said you can be successful without corpo overhead and bullshittery.