NY announces game ownership bill requiring ownership rather than licensing

Commenters discussed a bill introduced by a New York member of Congress that would require consumers to own games rather than receive licenses and would oblige publishers to keep games functional after official support ends. Many responses were enthusiastic, with some calling the proposal "amazing" and urging other jurisdictions to copy it, while others said copyright reform should go further by expanding Fair Use to explicitly protect emulation, reverse engineering, and community-run servers that preserve games. Several people also corrected a reading of the headline, noting it is federal legislation from a NY representative rather than a state law.

Opinion split sharply on practicality and enforcement. One group argued the work is trivial: studios could release server executables or communities will reverse-engineer protocols and host replacements, so publishers merely need to stop suing preservation efforts. Opponents warned that packaging development stacks, supporting both offline and online modes, and dealing with bankrupt developers introduces real costs and legal ambiguity about how much support is required. Others highlighted procedural and political hurdles in Congress, suggesting the bill faces the usual legislative timeline challenges.